Tossing Stones
by Princess Alexandria
Summary: She read the books, and hated that she shared a name with the main character, but never expected to wake up as THE Bella Swan of Twilight.  Things get stranger as she decides to rewrite the story from inside.  femslash or bisexuality likely
1. Chapter 1

**Tossing Stones**

Summary: 35 year old Bella Swan was sick and tired of people grinning at her name and asking about 'her Edward'. She read the books, like anyone else, but she still felt it was too bad she couldn't sue that writer for using her name. When she woke up as a 15 year old Bella, with a mother called Renee, that was weird enough, but things were only going to get stranger. Bella Swan rewrites the story that annoyed her from the inside.

…

I'd never given a lot of thought to how I'd die, it seemed so far off. I was only thirty-five, just finally getting settled as an adult, and things were finally moving along for me. I'd put in an offer on my first house and was waiting to hear back on it. My career was established and I had my eye on a promotion. The current training specialist was pregnant and I was pretty sure she was going to quit, rather than just take a leave of absence. My personal life was not as successful, but then it hadn't been my priority. I had years left in me, but apparently fate didn't agree with me at all.

Time was a strange thing, part of my mind noticed, as everything seemed to be happening in slow motion. The city bus was sliding sideways, and tipping toward me. I was watching it in the rearview mirror, as my own car was starting to pick up speed as well, in spite of how hard I was hitting my brakes. The bridge was falling into the water and I could see a van and two sedans sliding over the edge in front of me.

Even with my brakes on so hard my leg was shaking, the bus managed to push me over the gap in the bridge. I was staring back in horror as it did that, and couldn't believe that the poster on the bus, that was sending me to my death, had a huge picture of Kristen Stewart on it. Her cheek hit the back of my car and tossed me over the side. It was poetic in a way, that the star that played Bella Swan, was killing me.

My name is Bella Swan, and I actually used to like my name until that book came out. Now it was going to be in the newspapers as a note to who died when the bridge collapsed. For one moment, for the first time, I wished I was that other Bella Swan as I found myself falling from the high rise bridge. I could see the other vehicles that were in the wrong place before me hitting the water and even though I braced myself, I knew the airbag wasn't going to do anything, the drop was too far.

"Bella? Bella?" The voice was frantic and a bit panicked. I groaned as I wished it would go away, because the softness of unconsciousness felt better than the growing pain I was becoming aware of. I'd never been prone to headaches, but this must have been the worst one anyone had ever had. "Oh god Bella, are you okay?"

"What?" I managed and my voice was slurred. I barely managed to open my eyes and blink as my vision slowly became less blurry. A woman with brunette hair was staring down at me. A distracted part of my mind noticed it was sunny out, and something about that didn't seem right.

"Ma'am." A deeper voice spoke up and I tried to turn to see who it was, even as the woman looked up and away from me. I couldn't really look back at the man talking, because when I moved I felt a wave of nausea. "I'm a paramedic. I saw what happened. Can I check her out?"

Why was he asking that woman? I spoke up for myself. "Head hurts." I spoke up. I focused on my body to see if I could identify anything else and slowly my mind reminded me why I was here. I was alive! My eyes blinked as he shown a light in them, but I couldn't help but laugh in spite of the pain it caused. I lived, that should have killed me, I was sure it was going to kill me, and I was alive!

"Can you tell me your name?" He asked and the woman next to him, the one that had woken me up started to speak. I watched him shake his head at her.

"Bella Swan." I muttered and grimaced as I waited for the disbelief, or the jokes. I'd been getting those since the Twilight book became popular. When it became a movie I rarely got to say my name without some smartass comment coming back to me. He proved to be a professional, his eyebrows didn't even move.

"Who's the president?" He followed up, while seeming rather distracted looking at a bump on my head.

"Obama." I told him and watched him move his eyes back to my face. His poker face wasn't perfect, I could see I'd gained some interest from him. The woman watching made some sort of half moan noise and I ignored her. Why was she even still here?

"Where do you go to school?" He asked while looking in my eyes again.

"I graduated." I frowned at him. How was that a standard question? That annoying woman made a squeak of a noise again.

"I think perhaps we should get her admitted to a hospital. I don't see a concussion, but I'm not comfortable with not getting her fully checked out." He turned to that woman to tell her.

"I don't know her, why are you asking her?" I didn't want a stranger making my decisions.

"I'm her mother." That woman looked sick and pale now and I stared at her in disbelief. She was my age, who would believe that lie? "Renee Higginbotham"

"Okay, I'll call an ambulance." He nodded to her and I watched in shock as he took a few steps away and left me with the crazy woman.

"It's okay Bella, everything will be okay." The woman told me and patted my arm. "You'll be okay soon."

I tried to sit up, and when I did the wave of nausea got worse, but when I saw the pool, and the waterslides I froze. Where was the river? I was fished out of the river, I had to have been.

My eyes traveled to the reflective black side panel of a hot dog stand and I stopped breathing for a moment as I watched a teenage girl sitting on the ground, surrounded by towels, in a bathing suit. My hand moved up slowly to touch my forehead and I found her hand moving as well, to touch the stinging spot where some blood was still trickling down from.

I heard a gasp as my vision went black.

It was days later and I felt emotionally numb as I sat in the hospital bed as the doctor talked about my unusual amnesia. I didn't volunteer any more information, because it was clear the time or two when I said this wasn't my body was taken as proof of serious brain damage and they tested me far too many times already.

I wasn't sure if I had died and this was an odd punishment that God was giving me, or if something truly odd had happened, but I was sure that I wasn't a 15 year old girl. I didn't live in Phoenix, and that woman wasn't my real mother. If I was what they said, then all my memories of my real life wouldn't exist, I wouldn't have created an entire life in that moment when apparently there was a waterslide accident.

Doctors were baffled, psychologist were baffled and Renee was beside herself, but I was getting released today in spite of no one having any answers. I was being sent home with the woman who was apparently supposed to be my mother. They were concerned about school, because I was starting my sophomore year in two months, and Renee wondered if I should go. The doctor thought I might recover some by then, but we'd have to wait and see. They were talking about me right in front of me and I just couldn't make myself contribute. I had no idea what I could or couldn't say. I wanted out of here, away from prodding questions, so I could figure out what had happened. It was just because of that, that I was accepting this set up for now.

They used a wheelchair to take me to the pick up, and I watched as Renee pulled up to get me. I made my way into her car and put the seatbelt on in silence, ignoring how she stared at me. It was obvious she was lost as to what to say or do, but I wasn't really any better off. She was a stranger to me, but she thought she was my family. "You'll need to call your father when we get back. I've told him about, well, everything, but he still wants to hear your voice."

I looked over at her as she stared straight out the windshield and drove. "I have no idea what to say to him." I didn't even know who he was supposed to be. This was the first I'd heard that he didn't live at the house I was going to, or that he existed at all.

"Charlie knows that, you could just talk about anything. Talk about the rain in Forks if you have to, it'll be enough for him." Renee's voice rose a little, showing she was more upset than she was trying to let on.

"Charlie?" I muttered, a strange thought coming to me. "Charlie Swan?"

Renee pulled over and we'd barely made it out of the parking lot. She turned to stare at me. "Do you remember him?" Her question was tense and I felt myself paling a bit more as I started to think I might know who he was.

"No, no." I stammered quickly, not wanting to be taken right back to the hospital. Renee didn't look happy, but I sat quietly as she pulled back into the road and stared out the window.

"What do you do for a living?" I asked quietly, but my real question was next.

"I teach kindergarten. We're on summer break, so I have time to care for you." Renee's voice broke at her words.

"And Charlie?" I felt my heart pounding as I asked that question.

"He works as a police officer in Forks Washington." Renee told me and I froze as my heart hammered even more. I was now THAT Bella Swan. Oh my god, I struggled with a panic attack as I realized that I was the Bella Swan of Twilight. It wasn't my body I was in, I knew that, but it was hers. "Are you okay, you look a little pale." Renee asked, and I managed to nod, but my mind was swimming in shock.

Instead of heaven I was stuck living the life of a teenage character in a romance with an overbearing vampire male lead that I felt nothing but loathing for. How many times had I said this Bella Swan was stupid to stay with him as I talked about or read the books, and now here I was? I told a few people that THAT Bella Swan could have marched up to the Cullen house and tossed a stone through the window and hit a better match for her than Edward. I was in her life? Her story?

Did the Cullens exist? Did I really exist or was this some coma induced punishment? What the hell was I going to do now?

…..

A/n: the idea came to me and I wanted to start it up. I don't know if there is interest in another character in a world she knows about, but I've seen a few people do this with Twilight, not this way, but the general idea. They never do what I want to do, so I thought I might toss my hat into that arena.


	2. Chapter 2

"Bella, have you seen my shoes?" The yelling woke Bella up and she grimaced at that. She'd been living in this house for a month, and apparently Renee couldn't handle not 'being taken care of' herself for that long. Those damn shoes would be where the woman left them, again.

The book had hinted at the relationship between 'Bella Swan' and her mother, and it wasn't good, but this was ridiculous. This Bella was not amused. She'd had college roommates, drunken ones, that didn't demand as much attention. It was time to cut those apron strings, they were pulling her down. She was not the mother in this house, and the fact that while she was dealing with her own problems, which were huge, she had to remind that woman about bills, grocery shopping, getting gas, and the fact that Bella did not remember this or that story was bad enough. Now she had to help her get dressed in the morning?

Her dreams had been nice, she'd gotten the keys to the house she'd put an offer on, and the promotion. She'd been in her own life and waking up yet another morning at, Bella shifted to her side to see the clock, and her teeth gritted, waking up at 6 am to help someone get dressed so she could go play tennis was not her idea of fun.

"Bella? Bella?" Renee called out while coming closer and Bella wrapped her pillow over her head and tried to calm her temper. She was stuck in this, she had to make it work.

Was it sad that she was looking forward to moving to Forks and dealing with vampires trying to kill her? Bella grimaced at that thought, but Charlie seemed much easier to live with in the books. The Bella in the books didn't get to move in with him until the middle of her junior year, and she hadn't even started her sophomore year yet. A year and a half of Renee seemed like a long sentence to her now.

Perhaps if Renee wasn't such a pest of a morning person Bella wouldn't wake up so bitter every morning. It wasn't like she was lazy, she had trouble sleeping, understandably. Her quality sleep, if she was allowed to have it, would be the morning, but apparently in Phoenix, if you didn't play tennis early, you didn't play at all.

The door opened, and that was a pet peeve of Bella's. Even if she were Renee's daughter, at fifteen there should be a knock and a waiting for permission to enter. "Bella, did you hear me? Have you seen my shoes?"

She tried, she really did, and she kept herself from saying what she wanted to when she stared at Renee, but her face was expressive and the woman's eyes widened. Bella gritted her teeth and gripped her pillow tighter. "No, haven't seen your shoes." She didn't offer to get up and help look either, which was probably what Renee was after.

"I'm gonna be late." Renee complained and that was it. Bella sat up and glared at her.

"Then put your things where they belong from now on so it doesn't happen again." Bella's voice rose even as Renee's eyes widened even more. There was so much Bella could follow that statement up with, but she tried to calm down and let it go. Renee was one of those mothers, that no matter how bad you had it, she was still the center of attention. She was a drama queen, the exact type of woman Bella hated to have anything to do with. Renee believed her 'daughter' had amnesia, had lost fifteen years of her life, and still wanted to be the one taken care of. 'This' Bella Swan pitied the girl that had grown up in this. At least 'this' Bella hadn't had to raise her mother, take care of her, until the woman found a man to be her keeper. Renee needed a keeper, that was clear now.

"Don't talk to me like that, I am your mother!" Renee's voice rose after a shocked moment and Bella just stared at her. That woman was no mother, but was it worth the argument? No.

"Sorry." Bella muttered and stayed in bed stubbornly, as Renee waited for her to get up and help her. Finally the woman left the room.

"We will be talking about this later young lady. I don't need to be any later today, but when I get back." The threat hung in the air and Bella rolled the pillow over her head.

As the front door slammed, proving that Renee could in fact find her own shoes, Bella growled. "God damn drama queens." Sleep wasn't going to happen now.

She rolled out of bed and started toward her bathroom for a shower. She glared at the nearly empty bottle of shampoo, knowing that the last time Renee went shopping she'd been told they were nearly out of it. Bella would get it herself, but she had no job and was apparently too young to drive. She'd been driving almost twenty years and she didn't even have her learning permit yet.

She took a deep breath and tried to relax, while grabbing the bottle and filling it a quarter with water to try and get some shampoo out of it. She'd find a way to the store today and she'd get something other than the strawberry scented thing, she didn't like smelling like food.

While she was doing that, Bella started to think of other things she could do, even without money or a car. She had one month left before school started, and a few weeks past that for her to turn sixteen. It was time to think about getting a license. Bella nodded at that thought. It was time to throw in the towel of 'trying to remember' which is what Renee had her doing all month and start to live this life.

Renee was irritating, Bella couldn't deny that, but she'd been dying when she got this life. She needed to try and keep that in perspective. This life was better than being dead. She needed to see if she could make it work for her. She had a college degree, so high school shouldn't be too hard. Perhaps she should stop by the school and see what she could do about her schedule.

She reached for her razor and found it missing. Bella knew she'd left it there, so there was only one culprit possible. She grimaced and felt her legs to see if it was possible to go another day without shaving. Renee clearly forgot razors at the store as well and stole the last one from Bella.

It seemed strange that a razor was the last straw in helping Bella make up her mind, but it was. Vampires or not, Shifters or not, Bella was going to start preparing for a move. She wasn't likely going to be able to go right away, when it would be most convenient. No, she needed to convince Renee it was a good idea first and that would take time, but she was going to work on it. Everything she did was going to be working towards moving out of this house.

She didn't even really like the heat in Phoenix, and the pale skin she had now burned easily. Forks sounded lovely.

…..

"I don't know how I feel about giving you a learners permit now." Renee spoke up a week later, but the permit was in Bella's hands so it was a moot point. "You're still recovering and you haven't remembered anything yet."

"I might not. I can't stop living because I can't remember my past." Bella spoke calmly, she was learning to keep her temper. It was much easier now that she had a plan and didn't feel so helplessly lost.

Bella had really not been impressed with the high school she'd be attending in Phoenix, but they'd adjusted her schedule and she was in drivers ed, and to make sure things went well later, she went ahead and signed up for Biology this year. She wouldn't need it in her Junior year that way. It was all she could do to avoid taking that class with Edward, but there was a chance she'd end up with a different class with him.

The school tested her, after Renee explained the amnesia and her English scores were better, but her math took a little bit of a dive. Bella hadn't expected that, she was a college graduate after all, but apparently she'd forgotten, or never knew, some of the math they taught here.

In a move that confused both Renee and the counselor, Bella opted to take her state history class next year, even though it was supposed to be done this year. When she'd really been in high school before, her family had moved from Oregon to Idaho. She knew state history didn't transfer well, so with her plans to move it made more sense to focus on what might go with her.

When she tried to fill her schedule full, completely full with extra classes, neither Renee nor the counselor let her. They suggested she take it easier, since she was recovering and dealing with the amnesia. That was a set back. It would have been nice to work towards skipping Edward's grade completely and end up in Emmett's classes instead. Apparently that was overshooting. She still had three weeks before classes started, she'd try and convince Renee to let her add that zero hour class and remove the study hall for something else, but she was pretty sure that was a losing battle.

Renee tried to smile convincingly. "Well, you want to drive us to the mall? We could get you some new school clothes." She held the keys out to Bella and Bella tried to smile like it was a privilege and exciting. Renee gave her an odd look when she didn't say anything about the shopping portion, but just asked for directions to the mall. She was glad to see she wasn't nervous about driving, but the bridge she fell off of, she was never going near that one again. Luckily it wasn't in Arizona or Washington, because she flat out refused to drive over it.

"Wow, you're a natural." Renee muttered as they pulled into traffic easily. Bella smirked at that. Renee tried to give helpful advice as Bella drove them to the mall, and Bella politely pretended to be paying attention as if she were learning something.

…..

"His name's Phil?" Bella looked up from the pasta she was making to stare at Renee, who was sitting at the counter watching her cook. Renee had gotten back late from some hobby or other, Bella didn't keep track of the woman's distractions anymore. The woman had a sad look on her face as she studied Bella, but she ignored that for what Renee had been saying.

"Yes, Phil Dwyer, he's a bit younger than me, and a minor league baseball player. I'm beginning to regret saying I'd go." Renee said and Bella tilted her head and studied the woman. Phil was the name of 'Bella's' stepfather, this had to be the one. Renee had to go on that date, if Bella ever wanted to be free of her. The woman needed a keeper and in the book he'd been up to the task.

"Give it a chance." Bella smiled widely. "I mean, you aren't old by any stretch of the imagination." She paused. "How old are you anyway?"

Renee clearly didn't like that question. "I'm thirty-four Bella," her voice caught and Bella watched the tears start again. Renee did this once in a while, when Bella asked something she should 'know'. Renee excused herself and Bella sighed heavily, before focusing on the cooking again.

"I can't do this anymore." Bella heard Renee talking as she went down the hall to call her to the table. "It's like I live with a roommate I barely know, she isn't my Bella." Bella stopped walking and stood outside Renee's bedroom. "Charlie, she doesn't remember anything, but she can read and write and drive. She's great in school and remembers all her homework and does well on test, but she can't remember anything about me, about us, about her childhood. I don't understand it and the doctors are no help." There was a shuddering breath. "She isn't the same, she doesn't have the same personality or likes. I saw her dump her favorite book yesterday, she said it was boring."

Bella backed away from the door and felt the sting of tears in her own eyes. This wasn't drama queen Renee, that woman was mourning and Bella felt bad for not being more gentle with the woman now. She did treat her like a roommate; it was all she could think to do. It wasn't right, apparently. She may not like Renee, but the woman didn't deserve all of this.

Bella took her time setting the table and making the meal just a little bit more fancy. It gave her the excuse to hold off on calling Renee to the table for a while. It was also a small apology in her mind.

Renee came out just before Bella was going to have to call her to the table, and the woman had clearly done all she could to pull herself together. Bella gave Renee a small smile and pointed to the table. "I was thinking we could eat in the dining room today." They normally ate in the kitchen or in front of the television.

Renee looked a little pleasantly surprised as she took her seat. "How are classes going?" she asked and Bella suppressed the eye roll she wanted to do. High school and high school kids were even less fun the second time around. How the Cullens did it over and over again was a mystery, but then they had each other. That would have helped, to not be alone in knowing she was listening to this 'again'.

"We had to dissect a frog today." Bella grimaced at the memory of Biology class. "That really isn't dinner conversation." She made a joke of shuddering, but Renee looked just a bit concerned.

"We're you okay?"

"Yeah, I felt a little ill, but I got through it." Bella answered and then remembered how squeamish the 'other' Bella Swan was. She'd yet again reminded Renee that she was 'different'. Not good. "At least I won't have to do that again, ever. I was sure I might throw up." She exaggerated quickly.

"I know, I hated Biology too." Renee tried and they talked about Renee's high school years for a while. The woman seemed to calm while sharing something she, perhaps, didn't expect Bella to already know.

Bella was picking up the plates when she pause and looked at Renee again. "You know, I think you should go out with the Phil guy. If you have nothing in common, it is a free night out, and you could use that."

"Yeah, yeah." Renee nodded, agreeing with her. Bella was a little relieved to see Renee not brushing off the man she'd end up marrying. "It isn't like I'm an old fuddy duddy." Renee smiled and Bella returned it. No, Renee wasn't a fuddy duddy, as she said. She was far younger than her physical age, Phil would be a good match. "You're a little bit of a fuddy duddy though." Renee teased and Bella blushed. She was responsible, and on a mission to get a better roommate for her, she wasn't a 'fuddy duddy'.

….

"I could take you out for some of your practice driving hours." Phil mentioned hesitantly at dinner. He'd been out with Renee four times already, and Bella was well aware that Renee had snuck him out of the house the last time, in the morning, so things had progressed to 'meet the daughter' dinners. It landed on Thanksgiving, which was fitting. Bella was thankful for her second chance at life and she actually took the time to think that as they sat at the table, but she couldn't very well say it. She was also thankful that Phil was in their lives now, she had no idea if it was early, but it was needed. Bella wouldn't mind, at the very latest, starting her Junior year in Forks, rather than transferring midyear. In her heart she wanted to transfer in the middle of this year, but that left her with a month to make it happen. She eyed him speculatively, as she considered that, but when he squirmed she shook herself out of her own plotting.

Bella smiled at him gratefully and watched him relax a little. He was trying and Bella wasn't stupid enough to do anything to make him uncomfortable. She wanted Renee to keep this relationship going. "That would be great." She didn't need the practice personally, but the state required she log a certain number of 'practice hours' with a licensed driver. Bella noticed the happy look he gave Renee when Bella was supposedly looking away, or the encouraging look Renee gave him back. Phil wanted to do this right, in spite of the 'amnesia', it made him look like a pretty good guy to Bella. Renee was lucky.

They took off after dinner, as Renee stayed to wash the dishes. It was clear that she was giving Phil time with Bella, and Bella was glad to not have to clean up. She'd done most of the cooking after all, because Renee had whined that she wanted tonight to be perfect and it was clear she meant she knew she couldn't cook.

Phil made a teasing display of putting his seatbelt on and Bella played along with a pout. "I'm kidding," He spoke. "I hear you are really good at driving."

For a new driver maybe, Bella thought, but she just nodded and turned the car on. She didn't wait for him to tell her where to go, she just pulled out.

It was quiet for a while and Bella knew he was struggling with what to talk to her about. "Your mom is really special." He finally spoke and Bella glanced at his serious expression.

"I know." She didn't correct him.

"I heard about what happened, the amnesia." He spoke more hesitantly. "That must be really hard."

Bella waited for a moment, unsure what to say about it. He was going too fast, wanting to get too close, but it wouldn't be good to slow him down. "It's frustrating. I mean, it isn't possible to miss what you don't remember, but when people keep expecting things of you, that you just can't give, that's hard." Her mind was on Renee, who was the most guilty of this, but a few students in school acted like she was rude to not remember them. She doubted they were important to the other Bella either though, because Bella never mentioned real friends in the book. Those children just wanted drama at her expense and she wasn't giving it.

"I could see that." He muttered after a moment and they went back to silence. Bella turned into the school parking lot, it was a route of sorts they took. She'd parallel park for his amusement and they'd move to circle the mall and come back. Driving was teaching her the neighborhood.

As they drove passed Best Buy they both looked over at the crazy people camped outside waiting for Black Friday. "There is no deal they are having that is worth sitting outside and missing Thanksgiving." Bella muttered.

"I know!" Phil gave her an shaking head with his emphatic agreement. Trying too hard again, poor guy.

They made it down that street and turned, before Phil seemed to shrink in confidence again. "I was thinking of inviting you and your mother to my families cabin for Christmas. It would just be us and my brothers family, but it's in the mountains and there is a good chance of snow." He gave her hopeful eyes. "Do you think the two of you would like to go? There is skiing." Oh, he wasn't selling this well. If she was the 'other' Bella he'd lost her at snow and really lost her at skiing. Bella couldn't help but grin at little at that thought.

"Renee would love that!" She encouraged him and watched him brighten. She paused. "That would be great, but," She paused as a new plan formed. It was one she'd discarded earlier and an unlikely battle to be won, but now she could. "I kind of was going to ask her if I could go to Forks, you know, and see my dad." She could see him starting to deflate. "I don't ever remember seeing him, but I know I did. I just," She stammered like a teenager on purpose. "If you kept Renee busy, happy, then I could go and not feel guilty, and let's face it, I'll get in the way of romance." She gave him a weak smile.

"I don't want you to feel in the way." He said forcefully.

"It isn't that. I need to figure out who I am. I've been trying and maybe meeting him will help." She was sure she'd borrowed that line or idea from some movie, but she couldn't remember what.

"I understand." He said after a moment. "Do you want me to explain it to your mother?"

Her kneejerk reaction was no, but then she thought about it. "If you could warm her up it wouldn't hurt." She gave him a conspiring smile. He returned it.

After they got back they had desert and Bella wandered into the office to use the computer while Renee and Phil had some time alone. She Googled Forks, to see more about how little it really was. She also clicked on the link for Forks Hospital and to her surprise she found a listing for a Carlisle Cullen already there. She knew they'd been there before the other Bella's Junior year, but apparently they were there now.

She started to doubt her planned visit with Charlie, but she took a deep breath and let it out slowly. This was what she wanted, she wanted to meet the Cullens, and as long as she was careful this could be a good thing. What was the point in being in the Twilight world and not taking advantage of the chance to meet vampires? It would be stupid to pass this up.

"Bella, Phil's leaving." Renee's voice called up to her and Bella closed the web browser and got up to go and say goodbye. He was promising dinner in the future, all three of them as he left and then Bella was alone with Renee.

"I like him." Bella offered, since Renee clearly wanted an assessment.

"I know, he is pretty great, isn't he?" Renee smiled a little, but then it faded. "Phil told me you want to spend Christmas with Charlie."

"Well, Phil has such great plans for you and I've been wanting to meet Charlie." Bella explained while moving to lean against the wall. "And let's face it, Charlie isn't good over the phone." The man had talked with her a few times, but he was clearly not comfortable talking on phones. That comment got a hint of a smile from Renee.

"Thank you Bella." Renee's voice cracked, and Bella just smiled at her.

"Can you call Charlie and tell him, see if we can get a plane ticket for the longest possible stay?" Bella asked and when Renee nodded she added, "I'm ahead in all my classes, so if it saves money to leave a little early I'll be fine. Thanks." Thanksgiving ended with another thing to be grateful for, the start of her plan to move in with Charlie.

…


	3. Chapter 3

Bella sighed as she looked out the plane windows at the dark, wet, airport. It was about dinner time, but that didn't keep the sun up around here, she could see the sun was almost completely down already. She'd be getting out soon and she was sure that her limited 'winter' wardrobe was not going to cut it. Not with a body used to Arizona heat. Even as the plane was riding down the tarmac, Bella pulled the borrowed jacket around her body. Phil had been nice enough to lend her his jacket, when he saw she didn't have anything warm enough. It was too large by way too much, but there were bound to be warmer coats available to buy here than in Phoenix, so it would be okay for a day or two. She'd rather look stupid than be cold.

She didn't pack much, since not much was good for this weather, and she wasn't going to move just yet. Everything for her two week trip fit into her carryon luggage, except for the large coat that earned her a few odd looks. It would be embarrassing if she let it be, but she was determined not to let it be. The airport was small and she was able to see the Forks police car just outside the doors, really, just outside the doors. The cold wouldn't have time to get her if she moved quickly.

Charlie was standing outside of the car, and he smiled when he saw her. Bella had been shown a picture of the man, but the police car was the big hint that she had the right one. "Hey Bells." He smiled and took her bag from her hand. It was tossed into the trunk, without any extra words about it. Bella slipped into the warm car and closed herself inside with a sigh as the cold barely touched her.

"Good flight?" He asked, while studying her. He too, lingered on the large coat.

"As good as it could be. I had to rush to catch my connection." Bella told him and he nodded, while pulling away from the sidewalk.

"You look good." He muttered and Bella could see the shyness in him. He knew she didn't remember him, or anything really, so to her, he was a stranger she'd had a few brief conversations with. He didn't realize she wasn't his Bella, but then she wasn't planning on telling anyone that again. It didn't go well when she did. She didn't want to get readmitted to a hospital. At some point they'd just claim she was mental, and it wasn't the waterslide accident at all.

"Thanks." She returned the comment and then found that the book was right. Charlie was perfectly content to drive in silence. Silence was strange after so many months with Renee, that woman didn't like silence. Bella found herself starting to relax, in a way she couldn't around Renee. Charlie wasn't pushing her to remember anything, at least not yet.

"So, school going okay?" He asked as they got onto a freeway.

"It's going good. I'm signed up for my driving test when I get back, and my other grades are all A's or B's." Bella was a little irritated that she was earning a B in a high school class, it was humbling to see how little math she'd retained. Granted her Liberal Arts degree didn't have a heavy math load, but she'd worked up to college level math while she took her other classes and it didn't stick. Too bad she couldn't get a refund on it.

"Do you have a boyfriend?" He appeared to squirm in his seat as he asked that and Bella sighed. His glance at the coat was obvious.

"No," Bella tugged at the coat and let out a sigh. "Renee's boyfriend lent me the coat, I didn't have anything for this weather."

"Oh," He went quiet for a moment, but as he stared out the windshield he muttered after a minute. "If you'll be visiting more often we should really get you a coat."

"I'd like that." Bella spoke slowly and noticed the hint of a smile on Charlie's lips at those words.

"Any boys you're interested in?" He asked and Bella could tell it wasn't gossip. Charlie wanted to know how much he had to worry about her.

Charlie didn't look like he was ready for his daughter to be dating. She also doubted he was ready for this conversation. His 'daughter's' sexuality wasn't really the issue at this moment, the amnesia was, so she wasn't going to open that can of worms now. Especially not when he was driving, she knew better than to do that.

"Most high school boys are self centered pricks." She thought of the boys she'd seen around school, but Edward's name was also floating around in her mind. Charlie's eyebrow rose in surprise. "I don't plan to date this year." She shook her head and considered that. She was thirty-five, or was it thirty-six now, on the inside, but sixteen on the outside. Dating wasn't going to be something she could really see herself doing for a while. She wasn't willing to date teenagers, or pedophiles, so she'd have to wait.

"Oh, well, that's good. No need to rush things." Charlie quickly agreed and Bella watching him release a relieved breath with some amusement. "You hungry? How about we eat at the diner?"

"Sure." Bella smiled at his happy grin. It was undoubtedly one of several meals they'd have there, but Bella didn't really mind eating out all that much. She wouldn't get sick of it in two weeks at least, so she wasn't going to cause any waves about it now.

Dinner was relatively relaxed, as Bella adapted to the lack of need to talk. It was a little strange actually, but he didn't seem to mind the quiet, so she went with it. It was nice not to have to think of things to talk about, because that was a little hard to do.

It was probably eight when they pulled up to the house. Bella found herself opening the doors for Charlie, even though the luggage wasn't that heavy, he'd quickly taken over bringing it in. He took it right up to her bedroom and she followed him in.

Bella glanced around the room. In the books it was hard to visualize this space, but it wasn't too horribly small. The bed was a twin bed, nothing fancy. The lace curtains didn't really do more than obscure the front yard from her view and they looked like they should have been dumped at least two years ago. The light blue walls were that powder blue that fit more with bringing home a baby boy, which was the one shade of blue she hated. There were better blues, and perhaps if she did get to move in she'd redecorate. New paint, new bedding, new curtains and swapping the desk out for a dresser and it would look better in here. Perhaps a headboard and the wood floor needed a little work, but that was beyond her budget or skills at the moment.

It reminded her of the list of work she'd planned to do at the house she never got to buy. She'd been looking forward to decorating it from scratch, and she would have had to because she had been in a studio apartment, the cheapest place she could get and still be in a neighborhood she wasn't scared of, as she saved up to buy a house, so she didn't have much to put in the three bedroom house.

Bella gave Charlie a glance when he stayed and watched her take in the room, rather than wander off like she'd thought he would. "Bells, it being the holidays, well, the police work more, not less. I couldn't really make my guys take all my shifts for your visit." He looked down and she could see the regret in his posture, as he slumped a bit. "I have to work tomorrow."

"That's fine." Bella didn't need to be entertained, but then she thought about being trapped in the house all day. Without a license or a car, or truck in this world, she wasn't getting far. She didn't even have good clothes for this weather. "You think you could pick me up for lunch? Maybe leave me in town after we eat? I could look around, shop, and then meet you after you get off work." Renee did give her some money for some Christmas shopping or for necessities. Renee had refused to let Bella get a job, claiming it was too much for her with her amnesia, and Bella had almost lit into the woman when she did that. Renee treated her like she was part invalid, and part housekeeper and cook, and it really depended on which benefited Renee at the moment. The woman likely didn't even see what she was doing, it was such a habit by the time this Bella arrived.

"That's a great idea Bells." He smiled at her, and then turned to give her the privacy she'd come to expect from him. He didn't push for what she remembered, he didn't linger, he left so she could unpack the few things she'd brought. She could hear the television going on downstairs as she hung up shirts that were already wrinkled in spite of her efforts to prevent that. She was hoping it wouldn't show too much when she wore it, or she'd have to try and hunt down Charlie's iron.

…..

"We were invited to spend Christmas with the Blacks." Charlie told her while they waited for their lunch order at the diner. Bella paused her reach for the water glass as his words hit her. La Push, she wasn't eager to go there. Jacob and Billy Black were family friends though, so she nodded. "I told them about, your, well your problem." Charlie spoke more quietly. "But honestly I don't know that you would have remembered them even before the waterslide mess. You haven't seen them since you were a little girl."

That was the first he'd said of that since she got here and Bella looked up to see his pained eyes. "I'm sure it'll be fine." She said, while envisioning a rather awkward evening with a fifteen year old boy as her own personal shadow. Hopefully it wouldn't happen. She hadn't flirted with the boy, hadn't been overly friendly, so perhaps he wouldn't get attached. When it was some other Bella she was reading about, she'd been Team anyone but Edward, or in some conversations Team Jacob, but now that she was living this life Team Jacob was not on the scoreboard and wouldn't be.

"Good, good." Charlie nodded.

After they ate, Charlie made very sure she knew where and when to meet him. She changed the location to the grocery store and that alone had him blushing, so she didn't elaborate. He handed her forty dollars for "whatever she wanted to eat" quietly, and then wrote his work number down on a napkin for her, but what good would that do? She didn't have a cell phone.

As the police cruiser pulled away, Bella stood looking at the street that was supposed to entertain her for four and a half hours. It wasn't really that promising a prospect, this town had maybe three blocks wide and four blocks long of shops and restaurants, if that. Bella knew the grocery store was a block up from her, because they'd driven past it. Four hours in this was going to be a challenge. She might even know the entire town by the time this day was over, and she had two weeks here. She might as well do this in order, and with as much time as she had she was going to drag it out and look at stores she'd normally just walk right by. At least the excuse of Christmas shopping gave her some small goal. She'd get Renee, Phil and Charlie something.

The cold breeze made her grit her teeth as she made her way to the start of the shops on this block. She'd take them in order, so that she could slip into heated places on a regular basis.

Even trying, she just couldn't make herself look in some of the shops. She still managed to find something for Renee and she had wandered into Newton's outfitters for some fishing ideas for Charlie, but she'd have to sneak a look at what he had before she bought anything. She found she didn't know enough about Phil to find anything and when she got to that point she wandered toward the Grocery store earlier than she'd wanted.

Bella was grateful for the magazine racks, and she camped out there with her grocery cart. It already held bread, peanut butter, jelly, and two books to hopefully help her get through the next shift Charlie had while she was here. Hamilton's Anita Blake series was something she'd just started reading in her own life, and she remembered liking the first few chapters, so she bought the first two books in the series. Hamilton's vampires were a bit more like the norm, which was why someone probably recommended it to her. People had often recommended vampire books to her, even when they didn't know what she read. It was the curse of her name, but after a while she did read a few of them.

The home magazine in her hand was filled with ads, and she could see some of the things she'd planned to put in her own house on their pages. She did her best to push her thoughts about having that house out of her mind and she focused on ideas for that sadly lacking bedroom she hoped to make her own.

The page she was looking at held a vastly better bedroom, but Bella studied the sage colored walls and considered switching to a nice soothing green for the room instead of a different blue like she'd considered. As she studied the picture, thinking there was a lot there she likes, someone cleared their throat softly behind her. "Excuse me, but could you give me a copy of that magazine you're looking at?" A feminine and smooth voice asked, it was a nice voice actually, enough to take note of it.

Bella looked up at the magazine rack in front of her and reached out for another copy. "Sorry, killing time." She explained as she turned to the woman to give her what she asked for. Her jaw dropped just a little as her eyes fell on the woman standing beside a full cart behind her, with a hand held out for the magazine.

The woman's perfect features, caramel hair and heart shaped face were perfect for her. Her skin was very pale, and her eyes were an unusual shade of yellow. Bella barely managed to shut her jaw and swallow as she took in the woman's substantial presence. Esme Cullen was her height, was a distracted thought Bella managed as she slowly handed over the magazine. Esme Cullens also looked just like the description of vampires in the book, and it was a bit startling. Bella hadn't fully, completely accepted the idea that vampires were walking around in this world, even though she'd gotten to the point of accepting that she was reborn into a fictitious person's life.

"Sorry about blocking the way." Bella stammered and glanced back at the magazine rack she'd been blocking after the vampire took the magazine and put it in her own cart, along with cans and boxes of food she'd likely never eat, if everything Bella read was actually true.

"That's quite alright dear." Esme's voice was softer still and Bella looked up with she knew were eyes that were a bit too wide. "It's nice to see young people with an interest in interior design."

"Oh, ah," Bella glanced down at the magazine in her hand, trying to stay in the conversation, but her mind was racing in too many shocked directions. It was hard to do anything but gape. "Thinking about redoing my bedroom." She muttered and glanced back up, even as she curse herself for admitting she wanted that room at Charlie's to be her own when she hadn't told him that.

"Good luck with that then." Esme nodded and then started to push her cart toward the front of the store.

Bella let out a breath she hadn't realized she been holding, "Damn." She whispered. When Esme paused a moment and tilted her head in a way that put the vampires ear facing her Bella blushed, realizing that even the full length of the aisle away she'd been heard. She felt her heart speed up a bit as she realized she had to cover somehow, say something, make that exclamation uninteresting and unsuspicious. "Glad no one else saw me stammer like an idiot, she must think I'm an seriously off balanced." She muttered, hoping it was believable, when what she really wanted to say was 'damn, I can't believe she's real."

A slight smile crossed Esme's lips and Bella decided that her first impulse was the correct one. Now that it was true, there was no way she wanted the vampires to suspect she knew anything. Just in case Esme brought her up to Alice, Bella decided right then and there to never say anything about knowing anything. That would keep Alice in the dark hopefully.

Bella could try to control her emotions, or mask why she felt things, she could probably work around an odd power like Jaspers, and the book had taught her how to work around Alice's. It would only take Edward's creepy power working on her to mess everything up. Bella didn't want to stick out to the vampires, she wanted to blend in, safely.

Meeting a vampire wasn't as cool as she thought it might be once it happened and she realized there were issues to that.


	4. Chapter 4

The next day found Bella sitting at the breakfast table, eating her toasted peanut butter and jelly sandwich and getting odd looks from Charlie, who had offered to cook her some eggs. Bella wasn't a fan of burnt eggs and she'd read enough about Charlie's cooking to bet that was what she'd get if she had him cooking for her. She wasn't in the mood to give it a try today. She'd had trouble sleeping as she went over her meeting Esme and wondering if she should try to move to Forks at all.

It took three hours of self doubt, what ifs and changing her mind at least five times, before she took control of her fear and forced herself to commit to a new plan. She had spent a bit of time planning the move, and she'd lived her other life based on the safest decision possible, the path of least resistance. Not this time, Renee would drive her insane and she could safely avoid the vegetarian vampires here if she had to. The only real issue was Edward, either because of his powers or because of her blood. That became her deciding factor. That also became the reason she only got an hour of sleep that night, if she managed to sleep at all. The vampire she hated the most in that family would determine if she moved or not. She had to see how he reacted to her, and if he was a threat, she was going to have to learn to live with Renee for a while longer.

She had no idea how she was going to pull off any sort of plan, but resisted the urge to come up with a dozen plans. It was hard, she liked plans, but Alice might mess up anything she planned ahead of time. Bella was going to learn to be spontaneous. The fact that she found herself trying to plan how to be spontaneous proved it was a challenge for her. Her only 'plan' was to not stay in Charlie's house reading, safely away from everyone. She needed to be out in the town to increase her chances of meeting people, all sorts of people. She needed to use what she knew about the Cullens to try and hang out in places they were likely to be. That posed an odd problem, because this town didn't have a lot to it.

"Did you still want to get a new coat Bells?" Charlie asked and Bella looked up to see she had his full attention. She remembered telling him that she wanted one, that she'd need it for visiting him. She couldn't explain her doubts now, so she just nodded. His pleased smile was enough to make her more determined to make up her mind before the new year. "Good, I'll take you out today and get you one. Like an early Christmas present. You can't be wearing that big old thing all the time."

The other Bella would have protested his spending his money on her this way, she knew that, but this Bella understood the gesture for what it was. She wasn't going to ruin it by arguing, "Sounds good." She smiled at him, wondering where they could possibly shop that wasn't insane this close to Christmas. This was bound to be an adventure. Charlie wasn't a shopper, it was obvious. Bella was a bit better, but still she'd normally steer clear of malls this late in the Christmas game herself. It wasn't that she ever bought much, but she would spend a long time looking for the bargains when she needed something. She just was better at determine if she actually needed it than many other people. Living in a tiny place helped teach her that.

Charlie proved to have done his homework, because he was taking her to a movie as well, and they headed out to Port Angeles after breakfast. It was cute how hard he was trying, and Bella appreciated the effort to spend time with her. It made it easier to work on getting his help in moving, and she did still want to move, she just needed to see if Edward would be an issue first.

"I need gas." Charlie muttered before they'd gone far, and Bella paid attention to the high school they were passing as he said it. It was strange to see the shiny silver Volvo in the parking lot and knowing who it belonged to. It really was the nicest car in the lot, but Volvo's were so boring. If she could afford any car in the world, she wouldn't pick that.

The gas station wasn't far from the high school. "Want any snacks for the drive Bells? It's gonna take an hour to get where we're going." He glanced at the store. "They make a mean breakfast burrito. I'm getting one."

"It's okay." Bella glanced around a bit nervously as she started to hope that Edward was in class, or with his family, and wasn't able to smell her from where he was. "I'll pump while you shop." Bella gave Charlie a tense smile, deciding that for today, distance was the better option.

"You know how?" He frowned.

"Course, Renee doesn't like to smell like gas." Bella muttered and saw his frown grow. She added. "And I fill up the tank when I go out for driving practice." His frown didn't really fade too much, but he nodded and swiped his card so she could pump the gas.

Maybe if she just let slip some of the issues she had with Renee it would help her cause, Bella thought, but it was going to be hard. The book made it seem like Charlie hadn't gotten over the woman, so she couldn't be seen as attacking the selfish, helpless, woman. As Bella considered it she decided to not use that strategy too much, it was too easy to have it backfire.

Her eyes were on the shop and she could see Charlie chatting nicely with the cashier and pointing out toward her. He looked pretty happy actually.

"You must be Chief Swan's daughter." A deep, calm, and a bit too nice. That voice was warning enough, now that she'd heard Esme's and Bella slowly turned to see the man on the other side of her pump. She'd heard him pull up but didn't pay any attention. The blonde man smiled at her and his pale skin and slightly bruised looking eyes, along with his model good looks said it all. Carlisle Cullen. Bella blinked as she stared at him a moment, before he moved just a little and shook her out of her surprise.

"Yeah, I'm Bella." She gave him a weak smile and struggled to come up with something to say, something better than what she'd done when meeting Esme, how hard could that be? "How did you know I didn't just steal this awesome ride." She managed to joke a little while pointing at the cop car. He was polite enough to laugh.

"Nice to meet you Bella. I'm Carlisle Cullen." He nodded from where he was pumping his own gas. "Your father is a good man."

"I know." Bella managed, but for the life of her she didn't know what else she could say. What a place to find a vampire? This was ridiculous.

"Carlisle" Charlie's voice calmed Bella's beginning panic and she looked up to see the man striding towards them with a smile on his face. "This is my daughter, Bella." He glanced at her. "Bella, this is Dr. Carlisle Cullen." Charlie's eyes stayed on her as if considering something. Bella felt her heart drop into her stomach as Charlie walked up beside her and spoke very quietly, as if just between the two of them. "He really is a good doctor Bella, maybe it wouldn't hurt to see what he thinks about your condition."

She could see the vampire tilt his head just a little and knew they were being listened to. "Charlie, I've been poked and prodded enough. It's gone, it's just gone." She couldn't stop her irritation from leaking out, but she could see Charlie's face fall. Dammit. "What more could be done?" She knew nothing would ever work, it wasn't amnesia.

She was facing the doctor when Charlie's voice was low and slow. "You've forgotten everything Bella, your whole life. What could it hurt to ask?" Carlisle couldn't hide his startled expression, though he covered it up pretty fast.

God, this was painfully awkward, Bella thought. Charlie never had pushed, but it was like he was grasping at this one last straw and now Bella was in a no win situation. Some damage was already done, because now, whether or not Charlie realized it, he'd told Carlisle there was something 'interesting' about Bella. Shit.

She was about to deny Charlie, even knowing it was going to hurt the relationship she was building with him, when a stray thought grew. Doctors had to touch you to examine you. With something like a vampire, they could smell who you've been around like a dog most likely. She could safely send her scent back to the Cullen house while never setting foot there, giving Edward some warning that his 'singer' if she in fact was that, was around. That could help, couldn't it?

If she were lucky he might just move to Alaska permanently, leaving Forks to her. Bella liked that idea. "Can I think about it?" Bella asked and Charlie nodded.

Charlie spoke louder. "You and the family all ready for Christmas?" Charlie asked Carlisle and Bella wondered if they even celebrated it, but said nothing. Carlisle was a Christian, based on the cross he had in his house, that was more than Bella was. Bella celebrated Christmas out of habit, out of tradition, and by herself for years now. Or she had, this was the first Christmas in a while where she wasn't going to eat a turkey sandwich, watch movies and unwrap three presents she'd bought for herself.

"I thought we were ready a while ago, but Esme and Alice are still decorating." Carlisle smiled, but his eyes traveled over Bella subtly. Bella hoped it was the doctor in him wondering what was wrong and not the vampire in him sensing she was 'off' somehow.

When they started to drive away, Charlie scratched at the back of his neck and asked. "Are you upset we didn't decorate? We could see if we can find a tree or something while we're out."

"It's fine." She started, but then thought about it. "But some Christmas lights might be nice."

"Just lights Bells?" He gave her an odd amused look.

"I like Christmas lights." Was all she managed, before he chuckled at her. That was all she normally did for the holidays, because the hassle of a tree was a bit much for one person, but the lights made it feel like the holidays even on their own. "We could decorate the windows."

"Alright, we'll check and see if they have any lights left." He smiled as they moved onto the freeway.

They bought enough lights for a few of the windows, the nice LED ones, and she had a new coat, in a nice green, and the movie wasn't too bad, but she would have rather seen something else. The Chronicles of Narnia, the lion the witch and the wardrobe was fantasy, and old, but something about walking into a fantasy world was uncomfortably close for her.

Unlike Renee, Charlie didn't hound Bella about the doctor all day. He didn't even bring it up until dinner time. Bella did appreciate not having to relive that drama here, but she knew when he sat back at the table in the kitchen, his plate now cleaned of the take out they'd brought home, that the peace was over.

"Bella, I know you've been to a lot of doctors, and I've heard about the tests." Charlie started. "I'm not suggest that you go through all of that again, I'm sure it was scary and upsetting." He sounded like he'd been working on this speech all day so Bella sat quietly, wondering how she'd respond to it. "I just want his opinion. Carlisle Cullen is five times the doctor this place warrants. He could have gone to any of the leading hospitals in America, but he came here because his wife wanted to live in a small town. He's a good man and I'd bet money that he's a better doctor than those quacks that saw you in Phoenix."

"And if he says what everyone else has? That only time will tell? That it could be forever?" Bella knew she wasn't going to remember a life she didn't live. "Renee never shuts up, thinking that if she tells me enough stories I'll remember and she looks at me like I'm a failure if I don't. I like that you don't do that to me." Bella was surprised to find tears in her eyes, and crawling down her cheeks. "I'm so tired of being looked at like a freak if I like something 'she' didn't, or if I don't appreciate something like 'she' did." Charlie's eyes widened and Bella shook her head. She'd clearly underestimated the stress she was under if she was bursting into tears like this. She hated to have people see her as weak and she struggled to wipe at her eyes subtly in case he didn't notice yet, but the look on his face said he had, and he moved to hug her to him, proving it.

"If you don't want to do this, I'll understand. You aren't a freak Bella, you're still my little girl, and I don't want you ever feeling like a freak." Charlie's words just made controlling her tears harder. She wasn't his little girl, but at that moment, she kinda wished she were.

That was the last straw and Bella nodded. "I'll go." It wouldn't work, but it would make Charlie happy and it might help with Edward. It was enough, and it wasn't like Carlisle read minds, he wouldn't know she didn't belong in this body at all.

She doubted he'd be able to answer what had really happened to her either, so there was no point in being honest. "Can you make it a late in the day appointment. I'd rather be the last one he sees that day." She managed to remember she wanted her scent going home with him, so she needed him to go home as soon as possible after seeing her.

"Sure thing Bells."

"And you aren't spending money on tests I've already taken, right." She didn't want medical bills piling up on Charlie when she knew it wouldn't help.

"I'll call in the morning and see if he can check you out. He's an ER doctor, so making appointments is not normal." Charlie smiled. "But I'm sure they'll help out the ol' chief of police." He almost seemed to be joking, so Bella nodded at his effort. By the time the appointment came around she was pretty sure she'd be feeling nauseous, so perhaps Carlisle would give her something for that at least.

Charlie worked the next day, but he was getting off work a little early to take her to the hospital. Bella talked him into lunch and leaving her in town again, but this time she brought a book and a little money for a tea or something, anything to give her an excuse to hang out at the coffee shop for an hour or two. They had a nice fireplace and a comfortable atmosphere.

After getting Charlie's gift and carefully putting it in her purse, Bella sat back and enjoyed the Christmas music and festive air of the coffee shop with the first Anita Blake book in her hand.

It was easy to tell when the high school got out, the road actually became busy. Bella looked up to see a parade of vehicles, some with happy students yelling out the windows. That was how it was obvious they were on winter break finally. Christmas was just two days away and the high schools were finally releasing their students. Bella thought, briefly, on the school she'd have to return to and could understand the kids joy at time off. She really wished she didn't have to go back.

When the Volvo made its way down the street with the parade Bella couldn't help but stare. She tried to look into the tinted windows, but she only caught a hint of blonde hair, no details, from the passenger side. She had to pull her eyes away from it and force herself to not look back as she wondered if all five of the vampires she hadn't met were in that car. She smirked as she imagined them all piling out of it like clowns, because she imagined it would be a tight fit.

She was well into the last third of her book when Charlie slid into the seat across from her, holding a large cup of something in his hand, she wondered if he'd bought coffee black. She hadn't even noticed him come in. "Good book Bells?"

"Actually it is." She glanced down at the cover again. "The main character raises zombies and is being forced to investigate some murders." She didn't even say the word vampire, it just didn't seem like a safe word to be saying.

"Wow, that's a weird one Bells." Charlie frowned. "Zombies, that's just plain creepy."

Bella just grinned a little, because she understood. Until you start reading fantasy books, they seem rather stupid, it's the writer that makes it real, because if they can't make the impossible relatable, then it doesn't work. Her grin died down as the considered that the impossible was possible here. She glanced at the clock. "You're early."

"The thought of sitting here and enjoying a cup of coffee was too hard to resist." He smiled at her and took a deep sip of his drink. They finished their drinks before leaving for that appointment. Bella proved to be a bit psychic herself when she started feeling a bit ill just before they got to the parking lot. Her stomach churned with nerves, but she just gritted her teeth and followed Charlie into the ER waiting room, where apparently people who shouldn't be able to make appointments go to see the ER doctor.

….


	5. Chapter 5

Charlie sat with Bella in the waiting room, and Bella wondered if he'd be there for the entire exam as well. With a head injury Bella hadn't had to dress down for too many of these, so it wouldn't be too awkward, just not how she'd like to do this. She'd had enough of the Doctors comforting Renee, rather than dealing with her for a lifetime. She doubted Charlie would be like that, but still it was nerve-wracking that she could be wrong. She didn't want to see him cry.

She was staring out the window, wishing she was walking out into the cold when she felt, or heard the change in the waiting room. Voices that had been louder were quiet and she looked up to see the blonde doctor she'd been waiting for. He smiled as he came up to them, "Bella, Charlie, why don't you come with me to my office."

The hospital was a bit mazelike and Bella wasn't comfortable with the idea that she wasn't sure she could find her way out quickly as she followed him. Charlie was chatting with Carlisle about some car accident from a few weeks ago, the last time they'd really talked, apparently. Bella paid more attention to trying to see if Carlisle did anything she could see was not human by walking behind him. She wasn't seeing anything.

He held the door opened for them and then closed it behind them. "Take a seat." Carlisle smiled at them and Bella moved to sit, while glancing around subtly. She did see a family photo she was more than eager to grab and look at, but she couldn't do that now. She couldn't see much from her seat either. "Bella, Charlie mentioned you have amnesia, brought on by an accident this summer." Carlisle spoke while sitting down at his desk.

Bella just sighed, and glanced at Charlie before answering. "Waterslide accident, hit my head rather hard I'm told." She could see Carlisle watching her even as she focused more on his desk and the files on it. "The doctors really didn't know what to say, they didn't see why I'd lose all my memories like that but retain the ability to read, do math, and so many other things. I've heard theory after theory, some doctor was claiming I'm actually just lazy and don't want to work to remember, that caused a few arguments at home." Charlie might have growled at that and Bella didn't bother looking over at him. "Some claim it was trauma induced, but as scary as a waterslide might be I don't think they would cause me trauma."

Carlisle gave her a small smile, his eyes far more gentle than any doctor she'd been forced to see so far. "I'm sure this has been a bit of a nightmare for you." He glanced down at the files on his desk. "When Charlie told me what this meeting was about I sent a request for your files, and I've looked over them. I'd like to do a basic examination myself, but I promise it won't be invasive and I'm sure you are sick and tired of Doctors by now, but I just like to draw my own conclusions."

Bella knew she'd agreed to this before they came, but what came out of her mouth was different. "I won't be staying the night, right? I don't want to stay in a hospital again."

"No," Carlisle shook his head, "No, nothing like that. I imagine you'd rather enjoy the first Christmas holidays you remember."

"Yeah." Bella managed to grin a little at how normal he made that sound. She glanced at Charlie for a moment and then back at Carlisle, willing him to understand her expression. She didn't want Charlie to be in the exam room, for two good reasons. Hearing how his 'daughter' didn't remember anything at all would be hard on him, as the line of questions would really highlight that, or had in the past with other doctors. Renee always cried. The other reason was that Bella was going to have to find ways to make sure her scent was all over Carlisle, and it was way too important that she succeed. She might have to embarrass herself to pull it off and the fewer witnesses the better to that.  
>"Charlie, I have the newspaper and a few magazines in the corner if you'd like." Carlisle proved to be good at reading body language projected to him. "We might be a little while, I want to be thorough." Bella didn't like the sound of that. "You could even get a bite at the cafeteria."<p>

"Oh, okay." Charlie seemed a little startled, but then he looked at Bella like he was checking that it was okay with her. Bella appreciated the gesture and nodded. "I could see if they have anymore of those fries."

"Okay, I'm sure they do." Carlisle got back up, grabbing the file, and lead them both out of the room. They stood in the hallway and Carlisle told Charlie, "We'll find you when we're done." With a friendly smile, but Bella's eyes widened a little before she could stop it. There was only one way to think you could find someone wandering around in this place, if Charlie didn't stay still. Carlisle was going to follow his scent, Bella was pretty sure that was it. Still perhaps he meant for Charlie to stay in the Cafeteria, but if Charlie left, they'd probably still find him fast. That was weird and a bit neat actually.

"So how are you liking Forks so far?" Carlisle asked her while walking with her towards whatever exam room they could get.

"It's okay." She gave a weak smile. "It would be nicer if I had more winter clothes. I didn't have anything to bring, we had to buy the coat." She touched her coat as she said that.

He chuckled, "I'm glad my daughter isn't visiting me today, she might have just decided to steal you and take you shopping instead of letting me examine you." Bella gave him a small smile, knowing which daughter exactly he had to be talking about.

"People don't like to go shopping with me. I'm a bargain hunter." She said, thinking of the times she'd tried to shop with others. "I think Charlie might need therapy for taking me out. I tried, I really did, but I couldn't buy this coat until I was sure it was the best deal I was going to find."

Carlisle grinned and stopped at a doorway. "Maybe I want you taking Alice out shopping then, she needs to learn to at least look at the pricetag." He opened the door. "This is our room." Bella stepped inside first, since he was indicating she should.

It took a moment to take her coat off and for him to log into the computer to put his notes in it, but it really didn't feel like a long enough break for Bella. She watched his hands type and considered that doctors wash their hands a million times a day. She'd need her scent on his clothes, not his lab jacket, but his actual clothes. How the hell was she gonna pull that off?

White coat syndrome, Bella thought in a flash, remembering a co-worker who got sick anytime she had to go to the doctors. She'd been traumatized by past doctor visits. Could claiming that get that damned coat off him? Or did she need to get her scent through that coat and onto his clothes?

It was likely she wasn't getting that white coat off of him. Pant legs were too close to actually groping him, so she wasn't doing that, even though the coat didn't cover those. Oh well, planning it too much would make it look like she was a creeper if Alice saw, so she was going to play like she needed physical comfort. Dammit, she might even need to cry.

"Bella?" Carlisle's voice sounded concerned and Bella looked up from his pant legs to see he was watching her. She bet he was not the first time he'd said her name. She couldn't help but blush.

"Sorry." She muttered and then sat up a bit straighter in the chair to the side of the computer. It was questions and answers time.

"Do you fade out like that often?" He asked, and Bella frowned at the question. She just was too busy thinking, why was that an issue?

"No," She spoke slowly, still trying to anticipate where that question came from, it was new. Doctors hadn't asked about that before.

"Do you have any strange dreams? Or feel like you have seen some things before, perhaps as if they were visions you couldn't remember having?" Carlisle asked and Bella's frown grew, before her eyes widened in comprehension. He was comparing her to Alice. Alice who lost her own memory of her human years and they didn't yet know why. Bella knew why Alice had amnesia, but no one else did yet.

"No, no." She shook her head.

Her heart was a little faster and she damned it when he glanced at her chest briefly as if he heard it speeding up. Sure, that made it sound like a desperate lie, perfect. Now his mind was making up more interesting things about her that weren't even true, when she wanted to be boring and average and blend into the background.

He followed up with a few more ordinary questions she'd heard a dozen times before, but unlike the others he asked follow up questions that were new. It felt odd, worrying that maybe he might figure out what was wrong, so she dismissed that thought as soon as she had it.

"I read that for the first two days you didn't even recognize your own body." Carlisle asked and her heart betrayed her again, pounding really. She never said anything about that after the tests and the looks she'd gotten, she knew it was a dangerous claim. She did not want to end up in a mental hospital.

"Yeah, that was kind of scary." She muttered and glanced around the room. They hadn't even started the physical yet and she was wishing it was over. A cool hand over her arm brought her eyes down to her arm on the desk and his attempt at a comforting touch. She looked back up at him, and normally she'd try and shake that hand off politely, but her plan for her scent had her keeping it there. "I came to with this annoying woman staring down at me and people were asking her questions. I remember being pissed that they didn't ask me, that they were asking this stranger instead." She grimaced. "Turns out that was my mother."

He gave a weak smile at her tone, it was partly joking. "Annoying huh?"

"She still is." Bella had no amusement in her voice. "I feel bad for her, losing a daughter like this, but I don't like her." Carlisle's eyes became very serious and his gentle hand squeezed her arm just a little.

"Is she abusive?" He asked and Bella frowned as she considered that.

"She's in over her head if she has to find her shoes in the morning. She's pathetically immature and helpless. She is not able to deal with this, this," Bella pointed to herself, "is too much for her. If I didn't still remember how to cook, pay bills, and take care of the house I don't know what she'd do. She can't take care of herself and I kind of hate her for that. I have enough going on," Bella's voice cracked. She'd delved into this topic knowing it was hard for her, because she needed to keep him comforting her. She rarely let her emotions out on purpose and was surprised it was working.

"What's been going on Bella?" He asked and he wasn't focused on her amnesia, just on her. That was kinda nice.

"I think some of the kids at school are pretending they knew me because they know I don't know any better." Bella gritted her teeth. "I ignore them, they're just useless pieces of garbage, but it's not fun. I once made the mistake of telling Renee, and she made it all about her, like usual. How her Bella told her everything and was wonderful and could have had all those friends and I was just pushing them away. They don't want to be my friend, you can see the plotting in their eyes and they were up to something and I had to endure a lecture about being closed off." She shook her head and took a deep breath. She'd managed to stop that teasing soon after she'd brought it up with Renee, by ignoring when people talk to her and focusing on getting her homework done in record time while at school. She ate in the classroom while reading.

"Renee doesn't want to let me get a job, she wants me to focus on trying to remember. If I hadn't been able to outline how 'useful' it would be for me to have a license she wouldn't have let me take driver's ed. I can't live my life, because all she wants is my past. I don't care anymore that I've forgotten, I just want people to leave me alone about it." Bella shifted and put her hand over his arm, over his coat and what might be a long sleeve shirt and stared into his yellow eyes. "For the people that knew me, it's harder, I've been told and I understand that much. I feel bad for them, but when do I get to live for me?" She grasped his arm harder, since rubbing it would send a completely different message.

She was talking about her feelings more than she ever did, in either life. It was hard, exhausting even, but she pushed on. "I'm here because Charlie wanted me to try this. He respects you, and if you tell him to just leave me alone about it and let me live my life he'll do it. She would seek another opinion, one that had her nagging me even more, but Charlie's better. We both know there isn't anything that can be done. I just need to make him feel like he tried."

"Do you even want your memories back?" Carlisle asked a new question.

"No," Bella shook her head and sighed. It wasn't her memories, but if they came to her out of some weird fusion of the two of them it would be the stuff of nightmares. "Not really. I feel like if I became that Bella again, I'd be a doormat and people would continue to walk all over me for the rest of my life." That's what she'd called Twilight Bella after all. "That's what Renee is upset about losing, she trained her daughter to be her keeper, to be self-sacrificing and have a need to do it all for others, even at the expense of herself. I don't want to be selfish, don't get me wrong, but I think I matter somewhat. My opinions about my own life matter somewhat." She glared at nothing, but she was also remembering how the Cullens had not figured that out for their Bella either, that Bella never got to make decisions easily.

"You're at that age when you normally would be pushing to make your own decisions." Carlisle spoke and Bella didn't let go of his arm even when he fidgeted a little. She pretended not to get the non-verbal hint to let him go and he settled down and let her continue to get her scent into his clothes. "The amnesia added a wrinkle to that, but you sound very mature in all of this. You are right, your opinions, your desires, they matter. I almost wish it had been Renee to bring you in so that I could talk with her for you."

"If you don't agree with her, she wouldn't listen." Bella grumbled bitterly. "If the doctors don't give her what she wants soon, I'll bet I'll be seeing new age quacks soon if I can't get her to give up."

He sighed. "I still want to examine you, see if they missed anything, but I'm just checking for your health. Your memories will come or they won't. I've known cases where they never came back, but that person still leads a fulfilling life and has recreated herself. It looks like that's what you want to do and I think you should. Find out who you are now and go with that. It's the only thing you can do."

Bella nodded and then was forced to let go as he stood up. The physical exam was simple, heartbeat, eyes, a few motor tests, the typical tests she'd done a million times.

"You've talked a lot about Renee, how is your visit with Charlie going?" Carlisle asked while having her stare into his eyes while he shined a light at her pupils.

"I haven't been here long, but I love staying with him. He's laid back and doesn't treat me like a freak at all." She answered and watched his pupils grow just a little at her words. He didn't like the word freak either, apparently. "I kind of wish he had custody." She whispered. "He gave me a choice about coming today. He lets me wander around the town when I'm bored and alone and he can dress himself in the morning without help." She gave a weak smile to the vampire doctor as he pulled away, and the light stopped shining in her eyes. "I don't want to go home." The tear had to be because of that bright light, she told herself.

"Bella, would you be willing to say that to Charlie?" Carlisle stared into her eyes again. "With what you've said you could give him what he needs to fight for custody."

Bella glanced at his sleeve she'd been touching as much as possible during this visit. "I don't know yet." Maybe if Edward didn't become an issue she would. It was faster and a bit more honest than she'd planned to be, and far more confrontational. She needed time to figure out what would be best.


	6. Chapter 6  Esme pov

**Esme POV**

Esme took a deep breath as she sat in the car for a moment, steeling herself up for a walk through the hospital. It would look strange for her to never visit her husband at work, and with the nurses it was a good idea to remind them she existed once in a while. It wasn't that she didn't trust Carlisle, but the man was too sweet for his own good at times and he didn't need the nurses stalking him.

He'd called to say he was going to be working a little late tonight, but she'd missed the call because she'd been hunting. She had a fake dinner prepared, in case he meant really late. She grabbed the bag and got out of the car, remembering to pull the coat she wore closed, even though the cold really didn't affect her.

She smiled at the receptionist and noted how her eyes widened a little at her approach. They all did that still, somehow Carlisle had put them at ease, but Esme wasn't sure why she wasn't able to succeed at calming the humans as well. "He's with a patient in an exam room Mrs. Cullen."

"Thank you Sarah." Esme smiled at the woman as she internally groaned at being forced to wait around in this place longer. It was his passion, and his calling, but the blood of the hospital was something she never risked without a quick hunt beforehand.

"You could wait in his office if you'd like." Sarah offered the normal solution and she just nodded as she smelled some human coming toward the front doors with some sort of bleeding wound. Esme stopped breathing and made her way to the relative safety of Carlisle's office for now.

She was slowly flipping through a magazine when she started to hear Carlisle's voice coming closer as he talked with some patient of his. Even with so many other voices in this place, she'd always hear his. "Bella, I am concerned about your living with your mother and I hope that if she becomes more difficult to live with you will tell Charlie."

"I can do that." The girl sounded young, perhaps a teenager and Esme's heart ached that a mother would ever be an issue.

He opened his office door a crack and led the girl inside. "I just want to put your file away before we go find your father." Carlisle spoke to the girl behind him, but he looked at her. She'd known Carlisle a very long time and one look was all that was needed to know this was a very special case and that this girl had sparked his curiosity and concern. Esme made sure to put a soft smile on her lips, without showing any teeth for when the young girl noticed her.

She was adorable, but teenagers don't like being called that. Her brunette hair flowed down her back like a silky curtain and her skin was a shade of pale that even the humans in this rainy town didn't often reach. Esme watched as the young girl's eyes widened when they caught her there and in that wide eyed look Esme recognized her. It was the young future interior designer. The girl that stumbled over her words in the grocery store.

"Oh, Bella, this is my wife Esme." Carlisle introduced them.

"We've met." Esme smiled a bit more at the girl and noticed the blush on her cheeks. Did she surprise the girl again? Bella's eyes were moving a bit fast, glancing at her and at Carlisle, clearly searching for something. Esme almost wished Edward was here, because clearly a lot was going on in the girl's mind.

"Hey," The girl finally spoke, that strange nervousness in her voice again. "Nice to see you again."

"Clearly I'm missing something." Carlisle smiled and tilted his head, a silent request to be filled in.

"I bumped into Bella at the grocery store the other day." Esme filled in, but she wondered where the confident sounding girl she'd overheard in the hall went when she was in the room. Her teeth gritted as she wondered if Bella's problems with her mother were so bad she had problems with women in general. That was a truly disturbing thought. She forced her gentle smile back to her lips as she spoke to Bella, "You have an interest in interior design don't you?"

"I like design." She just answered more straight forward and it seemed Bella was starting to calm down. Esme wasn't sure if it was the normal nervousness some humans felt around their kind or not, she suspected this was something different and she gave Carlisle a questioning look when Bella wasn't looking. "I want to decorate my own house someday. I watch a lot of HGTV."

"Do you have a design style you like?" Esme asked, but most teenagers wouldn't know what she was talking about.

"I like modern, a little bit of contemporary with the art, and some really subtle organic elements." Bella replied so easily and Esme found herself starting to smile for real at that. She'd had design clients that couldn't commit to any ideas like that. It was intriguing that Bella had learned enough to say that already.

"I should really return Bella to her father." Carlisle spoke up and Esme nodded, sitting back a bit, preparing for a wait. Carlisle spoke vampire quiet and fast, so Bella wouldn't hear him. "Bella is Chief Swan's daughter." Esme's eyes widened a little and she nodded goodbye to the girl as she slipped out of the office.

It turned out that Bella was the only reason that Carlisle was working late, so they both left after he got back. Esme really wanted to ask about Bella and what her situation was at home, or why she needed to see him, but if Carlisle didn't volunteer information about his work she left it alone. It was just a bit harder this time.

Esme pulled up to the house shortly after Carlisle had and followed him into the house. When Carlisle passed by Alice, who was reading a magazine on the couch, Alice inhaled deeply. "Wow, you're smelling awfully good today Carlisle." Alice smiled and Esme rolled her eyes. Bella had apparently been hanging all over Carlisle, because he still smelled of her. It was unusual and sweet that she was comforted by his presences enough to seek it out like that. Even for Carlisle that was odd for a human to do.

Emmett didn't even pause the video game he was playing with Edward as he laughed. "Send a whiff of that this way pops."

"My 'cologne' is none of your business Emmett." Carlisle teased back, before walking passed the boys.

Esme heard the controller crack and felt like growling at yet another one this week breaking. "Emmett!" She turned to scold him, but then paused as she saw Edward staring down at a broken controller oddly, breathing heavily.

"That scent." Edward's voice was a little higher than normal and Esme tilted her head as she studied him. "How is it even possible?" She took in his pitch black eyes when he looked up. He'd gone hunting just yesterday.

"Edward?" Carlisle asked and Esme looked at her husband to see he also noticed Edward's eyes.

Emmett clobbered Edward's character and turned to gloat, but even he stopped as he took in those eyes. "Aw man, you got the munchies." Esme shook her head at Emmett's teasing.

"I've never smelled anything like this." Edward looked so vulnerable staring up at Carlisle like that and Esme felt uneasy.

Carlisle looked at his shirt sleeve and then back at Edward, clearly thinking hard. "A singer?" Edward muttered and Emmett's grin faded. Esme waited a little impatiently for them to actually speak so all of them could follow this conversation.

"Aw man, we just got here. I don't want to move already." Emmett grumbled.

"We aren't moving." Edward finally spoke up. "She's visiting, she'll leave." He was clearly sharing a conversation with Carlisle silently.

Carlisle looked over and her and Alice, but Alice had already sat straighter, probably having heard the words as Carlisle decided on them. Some times it wasn't fun being the only one not getting the conversation. "Bella is apparently Edward's singer, her blood calls to him."

Esme's eyes narrowed as she thought about that poor girl. "Edward, if I have to confine you to the house while she is here I will." She growled and the males in the room stared at her. "That poor girl is clearly going through enough. You will leave her alone."

"She wants to move here." Carlisle spoke and Esme watched Edward's jaw clench. "I had been trying to convince her to tell her father, Chief Swan, how she is being treated at home, based on what she's told me I suspect emotional abuse. Children never tell the full story." Esme moved her hand over her mouth again as her heart ached for the girl. "She developed amnesia this summer, and her mother is pressuring her to remember her life, but she can't. I can't see why she lost her memory, she shouldn't have, but there is little doubt that it is gone. There are clearly other issues as well."

"She just doesn't remember her life at all?" Alice asked, her voice softer and quieter than normal, more subdued.

"Aw man, if you snack on her and I think mom and Alice will tear you apart." Emmett chuckled.

Quite possibly, Esme thought and saw Edward turned shocked eyes to her. She wouldn't kill her son, but she would punish him, Esme thought with more darkness and feeling than she normally let herself indulge in. Bella was helpless, lost, and so alone. She did not need some bloodthirsty vampire after her as well.


	7. Chapter 7

Bella understood that Charlie couldn't have both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day off, it made sense. It still didn't comfort her. Just yesterday she'd sent her scent back to the Cullen house and now she was doing her best to stay in public, crowded places today. At this moment, even that didn't seem safe enough.

She stayed in the coffee shop until the crowd started to die down. She made her way to the next closest store with a good crowd and made her way down aisle of anime dvd's, games, and video game systems. People were getting presents and she could hear a lot of people didn't know what they were looking at. The salespeople were busy interpreting parent's confused ramblings about what game they'd been told was on the list.

Bella made her way down the console aisle trying to find something halfway interesting to look at for a while. She didn't have the money for a system, and almost regretted that at the moment. She needed something to do to on Renee's date nights after all. She'd prefer a job, a way to save up for the move she wanted, but she wasn't going to get that.

A chuckling boy on another aisle distracted her from glaring at the WII in front of her, or more precisely the pricetag on it. "Oh this is too good." He muttered and she shook her head and moved along to find the game aisle. Maybe even a cheap computer game would help her out.

Bella was reading the back of the Diablo 2 game, remembering that she'd liked the Diablo game she had for a while in her own life. It was mindless, simple, and yet she'd played it for hours at a time. An online version might be nice.

"That's old and crappy." A smooth male voice spoke up and Bella froze for a moment, because it was right behind her. "If you want a good online game, try City of Heroes."

She turned, and then had to shift her eyes up, because she was staring directly into a broad chest. Her eyes moved up to find a grinning pale skinned man with short brown hair and yellow eyes. He looked huge. Her eyes blinked, and she glanced around the game store and even without seeing him she should know which vampire would hang out here. They seemed to be lurking everywhere.

"I don't know." She muttered, but he was handing her the box to look at.

"No, see, this is killer here. You play online with other people and you create the hero you want to be." She had no choice but to look at the back panel of the box as he spoke, he was pointing out features he thought were cool. "Or you could play Villians now, I'm working my way through the City of Villians, I got it in October." And now she had another box in her hands.

"This says you need to pay a monthly fee too." She found herself complaining, but it felt surreal. "I don't have a job."

"Just get your parents to buy it for you." He shrugged and smiled at her as if that was all that needed to be done. Renee would just see this as more proof that she wasn't the same and it wouldn't be something she'd support. She might get offers of Ballet lessons if she was bored, she'd gotten that before. Apparently anything old Bella did, even if she did it poorly, was okay to try again. New things not so much.

"That's not as easy as you seem to think it is." Bella sighed and glanced at the side of the box with the pricetag. Hell, she couldn't even afford these games, let alone a fee. They were over fifty dollars, she was looking to spend less than twenty.

Emmett still hadn't introduced himself, but Bella got the feeling he knew who she was. She just couldn't admit the same. She looked up at him to see him looking at her thoughtfully for a moment, before he gave her a boyish grin again. "But if you got one, what would you want to be Heroes or Villians?"

"Well, Villians sounds good. Everyone plays the good guy." Bella allowed, it had sounded interesting when she first heard of the game.

"I know." He smiled and pulled the boxed from her hand, putting them back on the shelf. "I'm playing Major Buttcrack right now." Bella couldn't help it she had to laugh at the name. He wiggled his eyebrows at her. "He has super strength."

Bella shook her head, "Super strength is nice, I guess."

"It is." His smile was slightly mysterious looking, but she knew the joke. "Pansy powers like telepathy aren't any good in City of Villians."

"Probably not." Bella said non-committally, but she was glancing around to make sure Rosalie wasn't lurking in the store as well.

"What, you waiting for someone?" Emmett asked and glanced around as well.

"Ah, no." Bella brought her eyes back to him. "I'm Bella." She had to do it, clearly he wasn't going away.

"I'm Emmett." He told her and she glanced down at the box he still had in his hand. "Oh, my brother broke the controller on the playstation last night. Mom grounded him so I had to go get a new one."

Esme was grounding decades old vampires, that seemed odd and wrong, but Bella just nodded as if it were normal. There was way more to that story, she was sure. She was worried that it was a story she should know, that it was something to do with what she did last night to Carlisle.

"Save your money, Diablo isn't worth the box it's put in." Emmett told her. "You have a PC?"

"My mom does." Bella muttered and he nodded. She watched him head for the register. It was odd, but she guessed it was over. She started to look at the smaller games, the mahjong's, the word games, to see if there was something she could get.

"It's Christmas and everything." Emmett's voice startled her again and her back straightened, before she turned to see him holding out a bag for her. "I got you a card for 6 months free gaming too. Look for Major Buttcrack online, he'll show you around." Emmett glanced out the window and then just smiled at her while shoving the bag into her hand.

He was moving perhaps a little too fast to leave, he didn't wait for a reply or a refusal, but Bella muttered a stunned thank you as she stared at her present. Emmett was obviously up to something, but he didn't have that evil plotting in his eyes that she'd seen in some of the students at her own school. She didn't think he was plotting something mean, or deadly, to her.

She went and sat in the busy diner, nursing a hot tea and reading the box again. With him spending what she determined must be over 75 dollars on this; she would be obligated to play with him. It actually looked like a cool game, she thought as she took another sip of warm tea, trying to counteract the cold. She sat staring at the game, she really needed to figure out what she was going to do with it. It would help if she knew what he was up to. One thing she did wonder was if she could use this game to get a peek into what was happening in the Cullen house. Is that what she needed to be doing? She was really not comfortable with her future depending on people she barely knew, vampires to make it worse.

…..

** Emmett POV**

Emmett grinned as he made his way to the front door. He'd made sure to return as soon as he left Bella, her scent was fresher that way. "I have a new BFF!" He yelled out as he opened the door. He glanced over to see Alice sitting on the couch again, this time leaning against Jasper while reading. "I do right, she'll play with me?"

Alice gave him a small smile, which was enough to have him pumping his fist in victory. "I have a new BFF!" He yelled out again and finally the family started to congregate towards the living room.

"What have you done Emmett?" Edward hissed out at him once he was close. His eyes had gone darker again, not pitch black but clearly he could smell Bella on him.

"Bella's my new video game buddy." He smiled. He liked that Edward wouldn't like it and from what Carlisle said last night the girl could use some fun.

"You're this excited that a human is going to play with you?" Rosalie's voice came from behind him and he turned to give her a boyish smile.

"She even met me first and Alice says she's gonna play." He liked that, the girl was odd, quiet, but then all humans were when he talked to them. She was going to play though, so she had some guts. He would clearly clobber her in that game once he trained her up.

"I don't think this is a good idea at all." Edward said and turned to look at the others in the room. He did that at times, did his best to be a buzz kill. Emmett turned his eyes to Esme, who was the one Edward was looking at.

"I like it." Esme said and Emmett's grin grew back. "This way if Bella's mother becomes more abusive she might tell someone. She has no friends, no one. This is a lovely idea. Thank you Emmett."

Edward growled and stormed out of the room in anger, but Emmett ignored that when Esme caught his eyes. It wasn't just fun and games anymore, he hadn't expected that.

"I'll help you." Rosalie whispered into his ear. "You've gotten into more than you expected again." He let out a huge breath in relief when she said that. He hadn't really been sure how she'd take this, Bella was a girl after all, but apparently she was a 'young' girl. That made a difference to Rose. Rose's next words proved he was doing alright understanding his wife. "This is your youngest friend yet, she's what, six months old?" They'd filled Rose and Jasper in on why Edward was so tense and Esme was watching him like a hawk when they'd come back from hunting this morning.

"She's still sixteen, even if she doesn't remember fifteen years of that." Alice muttered.

"Sorry." Rose muttered a rare apology.

…

Christmas morning Charlie got his fishing gear and gave Bella a gift card. He'd explained how he didn't know what she'd like and that stuff would be harder to bring back to Arizona rather apologetically, so she made claims to like being able to pick out things herself. She put it in her wallet and hoped that she could get to a mall without Renee, because the woman was too forceful in pressuring Bella in what to wear or buy, and Renee really wouldn't understand the sudden need for warm clothes, because that might be what she needed this money for. She'd save it until she knew for sure.

They'd gone to the Blacks for dinner and to her great relief she was reminded that Billy Black also had two daughters. She stuck close to them and managed to avoid spending any time with Jacob, other than polite requests to pass food over the table during dinner. The girls gave her some odd looks and occasionally tried to say something only to realize Bella wouldn't remember whatever they used to get up to as kids, but it was better dealing with that than dealing with the puppyish looks Jacob sent. It was clear his crush didn't start on that beach in the book and Bella was not pleased, not at all.

She'd have to figure out what she'd do about him if she moved here, but she left it alone for now. No need to start off on a bad foot she thought.

The day after Christmas Charlie had the day off as well and they went and saw another movie, had another dinner at the diner, and for the most part had an okay day.

She went two days without seeing a single vampire, so when she found herself alone at the diner finishing her lunch while Charlie went back to work, she wondered if she was going to make it three days or if she'd bump into one in a bathroom, or somewhere else that made no sense. She was already making her plans of how to stay in public, because if Edward was a problem her best bets were to be in public or to be around someone else in his family.

She went five days, five days with no sign of Edward or the others, and Charlie took her to the airport to return to Phoenix. It was the hardest flight she'd ever taken. She didn't have her answer about Edward, she didn't know what to do, but she needed to come up with something.

…..


	8. Chapter 8

Phil was a godsend and Bella was thrilled that he was back in town. She'd been back for two weeks and now she had an evening to herself. She wasn't really sure what she'd do with it, but she sat down at the computer and started up City of Villains again. She'd played around with it a few times, but still hadn't found Emmett.

This time, since she knew she had hours of uninterrupted time, she swallowed some of her nerves and called her dad for the number.

"You want Dr. Cullen's number to talk to one of his kids?" Charlie sounded a bit surprised.

"Emmett said he'd teach me to play my new computer game." Bella explained, but she could easily imagine Charlie suddenly tensing up.

"The big boy?" He sounded suspicious and unhappy.

"Yeah." She nodded even though he couldn't see her.

"You sure he doesn't think this is something Bells, boys tend to assume if you spend time with them that it's dating." He spoke slowly, as if informing her of an issue she hadn't thought about. It was the same reason she hadn't called last week, she'd hoped to find Emmett without telling her 'father' she was 'playing' with boys.

"I'm in a different state. It isn't like it could be anything, and I'm just bored and want to play this game I just got. It's not my fault if boys are stupid." She didn't expect she was competition for Rosalie in Emmett's mind, he loved her, she knew that, but couldn't really say it since no one told her. Charlie choked a little at her words and harshness. "If you want I'll make it perfectly clear that nothing will happen between us, but can I have the number?" She managed to try and sound innocent when she said that. Charlie gave her the number and let her go, obviously liking that scenario better and he had to get back to work.

With the number in hand Bella sat at the desk and debated one last time. She'd decided that if she wanted an answer, wanted to move to Forks, she was going to have to start with a friendship with Emmett and use him to see if it was safe. There were a lot of reasons to call, but she was making a 'vampire friend' and there were concerns. Look what happened to Twilight Bella after all. She'd have to work on her poker face for when she saw them in person again. Over the internet was probably the best way to start this, to give her time to work up a believable obliviousness that would enable her to befriend vampires and pretend she never caught on that they were unusual.

If she started to really like them, and aside from Edward that was very possible, she didn't want to scare the vampires away either. They would run if they thought she was figuring anything out.

Bella took a deep breath and made the long distance call.

It rang just once, no surprise. "Hello?" A feminine voice spoke and Bella couldn't really tell if it was Esme or someone she hadn't heard before.

"Um, is Emmett home?" She had rarely cold called people in her previous life. It felt awkward, because he never gave her his number either. Perhaps if he'd stayed to talk about the game after giving her one she would have thought of that problem, but he hadn't.

"Oh, and what should I tell him it's regarding?" The female voice sounded startled.

"We were supposed to play computer games, and I wanted to know if tonight was a good night." And with that sentence she felt like she really was a teenager. She was calling for a 'play date'. It was a little embarrassing.

"Oh, you must be Bella." The woman sounded like it suddenly all made sense to her. It wasn't Esme, Bella knew that now, because Esme would have said more, and she wouldn't surprise Alice with anything she did. Rosalie wasn't friendly, but who else could it be? Rosalie didn't sound scary. "He's been disappointed, you haven't found him."

"I don't know how." Bella let out an exasperated sigh. "I'm just wandering around, getting my butt kicked by random heroes and I can't find him."

Rosalie chuckled. "Oh I'm so sorry. I'm not much of a gamer, but I'm sure that's not too fun." Bella frowned a little as she thought there was something odd about the way Rosalie was talking to her, but she had no idea what it was. "I'm Rosalie, Emmett's," There was a hint of a pause, "girlfriend." Bella knew Rosalie had to resist the urge to say wife.

"Oh, I'm Bella," She repeated and she tried to think of what she should say if this were a normal call and she hadn't been told about Rosalie, "I live in another state and am not interesting in your boyfriend." She chuckled a little.

"You don't think my Emmett's cute?" Rosalie was teasing her, it had to be. Bella froze as she considered that.

"Ah, is there any answer I can give you that keeps me out of trouble?" Bella asked slowly, only partially joking back.

"You figured me out." Rosalie had to be smiling and that was surreal. "He should be back soon, I sent him to the auto parts store for tune up kit."

"Oh, well, I guess I could leave a message." Bella frowned as she said that.

"I'll have him call you back." Rosalie told her. "That would be better, then your mom won't have a big phone bill. We get free long distance." Again, there was something off about how Rosalie was talking with her and Bella noticed the softness, the slowness, to the words.

"Okay, he can call anytime. I'm alone all night, nothing better to do." She said after giving her number.

"All night?" And in two words Rosalie's attitude and weirdly vibed friendliness made sense. Rosalie knew she was supposed to have amnesia and was treating her gently. It sounded like she either wondered if Bella was a 'child' again or was now 'special'.

"Renee is getting in pretty late. She's on a date and I'm trying to find something to do." Bella spoke up, but she didn't know what to do about Rosalie's assumptions. It was ego bruising to let them go as is, but if it was saving her from Rosalie's attitude, perhaps she could ignore it for now.

"Okay, but a young girl on her own. Maybe you should make sure the house is all locked up if you haven't." Rosalie didn't sound too happy now. "And I'll have Emmett call you back as soon as he gets here."

When Bella hung up, she just sighed heavily and got up from the computer. She made a round of the house because she might as well and found everything had been locked, but the patio door. Renee had clearly forgotten it, because Bella knew better. That was nice, just perfect, now the woman's flakeyness was endangering her and not just irritating her. Bella felt like growling, but she locked the door and turned on the back patio light as well, to be safe. Apparently she had another responsibility in the house, security, now. It went with her accounting job, babysitting job, cooking job, and housekeeping job, all things she had to do because relying on Renee to do it meant it wouldn't be done and Renee would either mess it up or complain about it.

Bella went back to the office to wait for a phone call. When it rang it startled Bella. She'd been getting used to the quiet and been concentrating on reading a webpage. "Hello?"

"Bella Bear, I can't believe you called." Emmett sounded rather happy.

"Would have called sooner if I didn't have to get your number from Charlie." She smiled a little. "If he asks, I told you we weren't ever going to date and we are only playing computer games. I didn't know you had a girlfriend, or I would have told him that." She smiled as she lied.

He had a booming laugh. "Understood, no touchy touchy the Bella Bear."

"I don't think there are bears in Phoenix." Bella muttered, but then sighed. "So City of Villains, how do we do this?"

Bella had to figure out how to set up the phone on speaker phone, because they kept the line open while they played. It was easier to just talk as he showed her how the game worked.

When she let loose a large yawn, she heard a slap and then nothing for a moment. "aw man, it's getting really late. I need to get to bed." Emmett sounded a bit fake as he said that and Bella couldn't help but smile.

"Yeah, me too. I'm beat."

"Call me when you want to play again, this we fun." Emmett sounded a bit more genuine then.

"Yeah, it is." Bella said goodnight, knowing that Rosalie had to be in the room with him telling him to let Bella sleep. She shut down the computer and made her way to her bedroom. She wasn't even there long enough to start to fall asleep before she heard Renee getting into the house. She rolled over and hugged the pillow to her head, to pretend she'd been sleeping a bit longer than five minutes. That way she might not be woken up to help Renee re-analyze her date tonight. Bella could deal with that tomorrow. She was so tired, now that she was laying down it was obvious.

…

"Now that you have your license, maybe you could pick up some groceries tonight, and I forgot my dry cleaning yesterday." Renee said across from breakfast. Bella knew it wasn't a big deal on its own, but she frowned. Just yesterday Renee told her she couldn't borrow the car to go to the library and then proceeded not to use the car herself. Renee was removing one of the few 'adult' things she did for the house now that Bella drove, but wasn't giving Bella even the littlest freedom?

"I also think it's time to talk about my getting a job." Bella sat back in her chair and stared at Renee. "A second job really, one that pays. You don't think other teenagers run a household like I have to do, do you? Did you take care of your mother's bills, make her breakfast and dinner almost every day and help her find the clothes she flung around carelessly the night before? Did you go over her accounts to see where she was wasting her money and save her hundreds of dollars a month?" Bella glared at the growing outrage on Renee's face. "If you don't let me get a paying job, I'm going on strike. I'll only do what a real teenager would do." Bella couldn't afford to let Renee keep her as free labor anymore, not if she wanted to be able to move or even go away to college someday.

"I'm a single mother Bella, of course you have to pitch in more." Renee said between gritted teeth.

"I could ask, but I bet most of the kids at school have single mothers. Shall I ask how much they pitch in?" Bella bluffed with a cold expression. "Living alone with a job would be less work than living here." She knew that was true.

"You don't have any idea what work a real job is Bella." Renee's voice rose as she was quickly, as she always did, making it a huge scene.

"And I'm at the age when I should be finding out." Bella didn't raise her voice even though Renee had. "You can't claim I'm not mature enough for one, because I'm more mature and responsible than you are. You want to go play in your art class and that's why you are making me do your grocery shopping. I want a job, to make money, to buy myself things I need, to save up for a car you can't afford or don't want to buy me, to get myself a computer for college, I need a job. I'm not asking for anything you shouldn't be saying yes to." In her own live Bella started working at fourteen, it was ridiculous that she had to fight for the right now. She'd been working twenty one years, which she'd bet was longer than Renee had put in up to this point.

"No Bella. You aren't well." Renee's face was reddened.

"Okay, I'll give you my revised job description for the house when you get back from work. If I'm not 'well enough' for a paying job, clearly I should be reducing my hours to normal chores at home." Bella's voice was cold and Renee looked a bit stunned when Bella got up without cleaning off the table and grabbed her bookbag for school without saying anything else.

Bella's hands were shaking a little as she made her way to the bus stop. She was so tired of this battle, she was not backing down. They could go without groceries, the light could get shut off, she was not stepping up again. Renee was only giving her five dollars a week for 'chores' so she'll get her monies worth.

By the time she got to school, Bella had developed a new plan. She made her way to the computer class with her head down and ignored any loud voices. She moved around the crowds of students and when she got there she used the time she normally used to work ahead in the class to develop a few job descriptions, along with proper compensation. She'd give Renee the ability to chose how much work Bella did, but she'd pay for it. For the amount of money Renee paid her, Bella wrote that she'd make three meals a week, and keep her own room and bathroom clean. Nothing more. When she added laundry, mail pick up and bills, and other household things the pay rate increased. When she added early morning hunting for Renee's missing things, googling maps when Renee got lost and other Renee babysitting tasks, the rate went up again.

She was feeling ready for a battle when she printed those out, and she emailed them to herself as well.

"Swiss cheese head," She heard someone talking about her when she made her way to her home ec class, the class she had talked the teacher into letting her eat lunch in. Her lunch was carefully being held in her hands, and her eyes were focused to make sure no one tried anything. She hated high school. She was always on alert for a knife in her back. It had calmed a lot, but that was because she was reducing their opportunities to pick on what they thought was the weak link. Her amnesia made her the best target they would ever find, and her 'mother' made it impossible to fight back in any way, even by turning them in, because Renee might well just tell the principal that it was Bella that was spurning her old friends. From the books, it didn't seem like Twilight Bella was missing any friends when she moved. Why Renee insisted they must be here was a mystery.

By the time Renee was home Bella had left the mail in the mailbox, left the dishes in the sink, and was eating a snack rather than making dinner. Bella was also sitting at the table doing homework, which normally got done at school. She'd been too busy today to do it.

"Bella, we need to talk." Renee came into the room saying, and Bella saw her looking around the room and noticing there was no cooking going on. "I called Dr. Roberts to see if he had any other suggestions, and he thought perhaps we should try hypnosis, and if that doesn't work there are some experimental drugs that are looking somewhat promising."

Bella pushed her job descriptions toward Renee. "Renee, why would I want to remember fifteen years of being your caretaker, when did you put me in charge of everything? Was I six, ten? I hope you know you're never having grandchildren, I'm tired from raising you." It was harsh, but Renee was talking drugs to make her shut up and do the housework. She might claim it was about getting Bella well, but the timing was far too suspicious. Bella tapped the papers on the table, before picking up her biology book. "Let me know what you're hiring me for. I'll start work in the morning."

Her words must have hit hard, because Renee was crying when Bella left the room. It would have made her feel bad if Renee hadn't finally suggested drugs.

Renee gave her the silent treatment the next morning, and didn't commit to any job description, it was like she was ignoring the whole situation, so Bella made herself a toasted peanut butter and jelly sandwich, noted the bread was low and groceries needed to be bought, and made plans to buy herself a loaf of bread to keep in her room. Renee wasn't going to go grocery shopping today, clearly. Bella grabbed the change jar Renee kept on the entry way table and pulled out as many quarters as she could find before leaving to catch the bus. She wasn't buying her own food if she wasn't getting a paycheck.

That night Renee came home with no groceries and Bella made no motion to cook.

The next morning they only had water to drink and Bella didn't make any fuss about it as she filled her cup from the sink. Renee was not happy she was out of coffee, and slammed the pantry when she saw they were out of bread and Bella suspected today would be round two later. She left for the school bus before it could start when she didn't have time to deal with it.

Renee proved true to form and Phil started what would be his lifetime of cleaning up Renee's mess that night. Bella could have stayed bitter, but she saw his stepping up as a good sign. A truce was made, and an agreement was reached that Bella would get 50 percent of the money she saved the household, including the work she'd already done to Renee's accounts. Renee clearly didn't know what that number would be, hadn't even noticed the extra money she had. When they were done she did enjoy both their faced when they learned her base pay, the money she got from cleaning up Renee's defunct accounts, was 150 dollars and she warned them she expected to double that with shopping and cooking, at the very least. With Phil involved Renee couldn't back out now and save face. Bella did notice that Renee didn't bring up that she'd suggested drugs for the amnesia, and Bella wanted Phil to stick around so she didn't mention it either. He was a good guy and would see a dark side of Renee too soon if he knew that was her first reaction to an argument with Bella.

…


	9. Chapter 9

** Emmett POV**

It was date night, but not his date night, so he was waiting for a phone call. He and Bella were going to cause some havoc and build some levels tonight! She was slow in coming along, but they'd been playing for a month, once or twice a week. He had his computer all set, and his phone fully charged, with the charger moved into the office. He was ready to go.

She was a little bit hopeless, clearly not that great at these games yet, but he had plans to build her up to a respectable level.

"She isn't one of your characters, you can't build her up." Edward grumbled and Emmett shook his head. Edward was still a bit of a dick about Emmett's new human BFF.

The phone rang and Emmett sat up quickly, while Edward hissed and then left for hunting. He didn't even want to hear Bella's voice. It was his way to pout about not getting his way. He was such a baby.

Emmett was almost to the phone when Rosalie dashed under him and stole the phone from him. He stared at his wife as she grinned at him and pulled it to her ear. "Hello." She said as if she hadn't narrowly missed wrestling for the phone. "Oh Bella." Rosalie smirked at him. "I didn't know it was game night."

"Rosalie?" Bella sounded uncertain, but humans weren't always good about identifying sounds.

"Yes, so it snowed here, did you hear?" Rosalie's teasing smile was sexy and promising and it had horrible timing, because it was game night. Emmett shook his head at the cruelty of his wife to give him looks like that now.

"No, I didn't know." Bella stammered out and Emmett held out his hand for Rosalie to give him the phone. His wife just turned his back to him.

"Have you ever seen snow Bella?" Rosalie spoke more softly and Emmett lowered his hand as he decided to let Rosalie talk for a little while.

"Ah, well, I live in Phoenix. It doesn't snow here." He could almost hear the human blushing over the phone with the way she spoke, it was funny, and he'd bet money she was red faced now.

"It can be beautiful. You should make a point to see it some time." Rose spoke even more softly and Emmett felt a hint of a smile come to his lips as he saw his wife reaching out to his BFF, she didn't do that for humans, it was so sweet and kinda sexy.

"I'm sure it is." Bella muttered and then her voice was a little stronger. "Ah, How have you been doing?"

"How cute, she's trying to chat with Rosie." Emmett teased his wife while Rose seemed to be thinking of an answer.

"Well, keeping my big lump in line has been a full time job this week." Rose answered and he could see a hint of a smile on her lips. "How about you?"

"Oh okay." The smile slowly slipped from Emmett's lips at the hint of a negative tone in her voice. He heard Alice lean forward in her chair behind him as well, and Rosalie turned to look into his eyes. "Nothing special ever happens over here."

"Sorry to hear that." Rosalie said slowly. "I hope things get better for you." The sound wouldn't register to a human, but it was clear Bella wasn't in the best of moods. She needed cheering up. Rose handed him the phone.

"So I'll call you back from my computer and we'll kick some hero butt." He offered with a smile, thinking that should cheer her up.

"That's the plan." She hung up and he put the house phone down as well.

….

Bella waited for the call back patiently, but she was surprised she had to wait a full five minutes. Still, she set him up on speaker as soon as he called and they were up and ready to roll. She hadn't really felt like playing any games today, but she'd made arrangements and she'd forced herself to keep her promise.

They were in the game and playing when Emmett appeared to clear his throat. "So how's school going?" He asked and Bella frowned as he did .

"Same old." She muttered, but then cursed herself for it. If she wanted him to talk to her about anything, to be able to give his opinion on whether she should move in with her father for example, she needed to be more than a gaming buddy. "I'm not exactly popular Emmett, I keep my head down and make it through the day."

"I can't see why you wouldn't be popular, you're pretty and pretty cool." He spoke softer and Bella appreciated it. The looks weren't hers, but she knew she'd been lucky with the body she took over, it could have had a lot of problems, but this 'Bella' was healthy and pretty. Being so young was a huge adjustment though.

"Thanks."

There was a pause and it fit with their game playing, because they had to concentrate for a bit. "Are they picking on you?" He sounded concerned.

"Someone your size probably doesn't have to learn this, but that's what keeping your head down is about." She gave a humorless smirk even though he wouldn't see it. "You take the short way between classes, you eat in the home ec room, you keep your eyes focused in the halls, and you pretend you don't hear anything they say. You never make eye contact and you stick around where teachers tend to be, and you just get through the day."

"Shit." She heard something crunch right before he said that. "Bella, that's no way to live." His Character stopped moving and she stopped her own as well. Then his character was jerking just a little. Bella guessed his mouse was crushed.

"Oh, I know, but" She stopped, even though she knew they already knew. Carlisle had to have told them, because it wasn't normal how they were treating her. They were treating her better though, so it was kind of okay. "They call me swiss cheese head, and I'm the most interesting target the monsters have ever seen." She sighed heavily. "Apparently everything old is new again."

"Damn, I need to reboot." Emmett muttered and Bella watched Captain Buttcrack disappear.

"Computer problems?" She asked flatly.

"My mouse died." Emmett told her and then there was a small smack noise. "But that isn't important." He spoke more quickly and Bella just shook her head. "It's not right that they treat you like this. Have you talked to anyone? Or you could punch one of the bitches out, that might teach them."

Bella, despite herself, found that idea amusing. "I'm not intimidating Emmett, and I'm not strong, I can't 'teach' anyone anything. Besides, fighting is not going to help me."

"And telling?" Bella could hear his computer power down in the background.

"Emmett, there is something wrong with me." She admitted, but she found she didn't want to lie. He knew the popular and normal story, but she hadn't told him. She was supposed to assume a doctor wouldn't tell his family about a patient, because technically Carlisle never should have. With psychics, empaths, and telepaths in the house though, how much would that matter? "Everyone in my life is a stranger to me. This summer I woke up from an accident and I didn't know anyone." All true. "They sent me home with a stranger that they told me was my mother. It isn't going well. That woman wants her daughter back, and I can't give it to her."

"Aw man." He stammered out semi-convincingly. "That really sucks."

"Yeah, it does. She's dragged me to far too many doctors, and now she wants me to see a psychologist to see why I'm blocking my own progress," she quoted and then she sighed. "I really don't want to waste my time once or twice a week talking about how I don't remember things. I'm starting to feel like she wants me to apologize for surviving, because it's so hard for her to live this way." Her voice held too much bitterness and whining and she knew it. "You ready to play?" She said, because she didn't want to be too whiny and it was getting there.

They'd managed to play for another hour without saying much when Bella sighed, she needed answers, and she'd been wanting to visit Charlie for spring break. Her only hold out was wondering if it was safe and she needed to know soon if she was going to try and nag Renee into letting her go.

She spoke slowly, trying to think this out. "Maybe I should ask Charlie if I can visit him again, I could meet your family while I'm there and we could do something."

"You do that, you do it right now and then I'll show you around town and where all the fun is as soon as you get here."

"And I could meet your family?" Bella asked again, just checking to see if maybe things were better than she'd suspected. He'd never even said Edward's name, maybe he was still living in Alaska or something and she was worrying about him for no reason.

"Yeah, it could be great, you could come over and play on the PlayStation with me, in person." Emmett sounded pretty excited about that idea. Bella was excited that he seemed to think it was safe enough, even though the idea of actually visiting his house was scary and she may try and get out of it. Maybe this could work.

If Spring Break went well, she'd make a decision about the move, but not before. She didn't want to crush her hopes too soon.

She'd fight if Renee suggested they use drugs, if it truly got to that point she'd use the money she was earning around here to jump on a plane and deal with what she found on the other side when she got there, but for now, maybe the Psychologist could help control Renee's craziness about this.

…..

"I don't see why she wants to go to Forks, she hates Forks." Renee was talking to the Psychologist even though she was supposed to be talking to her. The exercise was for them to talk to each other. "She's always hated that dreary, rainy town as much as I do." Bella already had permission and the plane ticket. They'd even told the Psychologist she wasn't going to be there next week, because it was finally time to get a break from Renee.

"Why don't you ask her?" The Psychologist motioned toward Bella and Bella nodded to the woman.

"You hate Forks Bella, you always have." Renee looked at her, but she was tense and kept glancing at the Psychologist in the room as if making a point. Bella didn't miss that what Renee said wasn't technically a question.

"I'm not a fan of the weather, but here my skin is too fair to be outside." Bella was determined to be calm and rationale and see if this stupid session would help with anything. Psychologists in her past life hadn't really been useful, but here she could see Renee needed the help even if that wasn't why Renee was here. "I love being at Charlie's. He doesn't make me feel like dying would have been better than living like this." Her voice was cold. "He doesn't treat me, every single day, as if I'm broken and lazy for not waking up with all the memories you want me to have. The kids there don't all know I'm 'different', and I actually have friends there." Renee had ragged on her about friends in the last session and Bella had admitted that she did have friends, just not from here at that time.

"He doesn't push you to heal Bella," Renee said as if it wasn't a good thing.

"He still loves me even though I'm like this." Bella spoke slowly. "You don't like me Renee, and I don't really like you." Renee played up looking like she'd just been slapped. "It's no secret." Bella shook her head. "You've been neglecting me since I was a little girl from what I can see, and in order to have food on the table and electricity, your Bella had to grow up and take care of you and everything and she did it without a single complaint, because she was YOUR babysitter." Renee looked extremely uncomfortable and she opened her mouth to try and interrupt, but the rules in this room said no interrupting, so Bella talked more firmly even as Renee tried to contradict her. "I was with you a week, having lost every last memory of my life and you were demanding I take care of you, find your clothes, look for that bill, I didn't even know my middle name and you still needed a caretaker. You couldn't even do your work, actually, what being a parent is supposed to do, for a week. I had to start doing it and I don't just do it with a little indulgent smile and suck it up like you're used to and it pisses you off. I'm making you treat me like a teenager or pay me like an employee and you resent the hell out of that, I can tell, it isn't hard. You never did tell me at what age I became responsible for taking care of myself and you. You are and as far as I can see have always been a bad mother. It isn't hard for Charlie to do better. He is far from perfect, but he is still better."

"How do you feel about what Bella's just told you Renee?" The Psychologist urged when Renee just sat there staring daggers at Bella.

"My Bella would never hurt me like this." Renee's face was red and her eyes glassy and yet still angry.

"As far as I can see, this is part of the problem Renee." The Psychologist had proven a few times to not be a complete waste of space. "You need to deal with Bella as she is today." Bella could see in Renee's eyes at that moment that the Psychologist experiment was over and they weren't going to be coming back. It was one more doctor not saying what Renee wanted her to say.

They left in silence and Bella watched as Renee drove with jerky motions that belied the fake calm she was trying to project. Renee never said a word to her on the entire drive back to the house. Bella let the silence hold, because she was more than a little upset that yet another doctor on her side was going to be let go, and worried about what Renee was going to do now.

Bella slipped inside the house made her way to the kitchen to cook. It was part of the agreed upon chores, so even though she was in no mood, she did what she was supposed to. She was part way through making the meal when she heard Renee's voice getting louder from the office.

"I can't do this anymore!" Was easy to make out. The words became a bit of a mumble from the kitchen, but really she shouldn't hear them at all, so Bella shook her head. Renee was yelling into the phone.

Bella put the dinner out, but she ate her own quickly before going upstairs to knock on the office door. The door whipped open when she did that.

"Dinner's ready. I'm going to do my homework now." She didn't have any homework.

Renee stared at her. "You're moving to Forks." Her words were delivered quickly. "Your father is going to enroll you in school there."

"I guess I can skip my homework then." Bella said as straight-faced as she could.

"Bella, I just told you that you're moving to Forks!" Renee's face reddened as her voice raised. "And that's all you can say?"

"Thank you, I didn't want to leave there the first time I visited." Bella muttered and then turned to her room. Her flight was Saturday morning, and now she had a day to take care of a move.

Once the door was closed Bella let out a gust of air she'd been holding in and her hands started to shake. She wanted to move, but this trip was supposed to tell her if it was safe to do it. Renee jumped the gun and caused her problems yet again. The decision was made, and Bella couldn't make herself argue against it now. Not when she really wanted to go. Renee never planned anything out, and after this it would no longer be Bella's problem. Right now it was very much her problem though.

On Friday, Bella had to go to school to return her things and arrange for her student file to make it to Forks high. She took the bus in to do that, with a forged note, because Renee left the house early for a change probably so she wouldn't have to see Bella. Bella skipped her first class to take care of it, and then was forced to walk to a city bus stop and ask them what bus she'd need to get somewhat close to back to the house. She was back home by ten in the morning and she started to go through her bedroom for what was going with her. She couldn't afford to waste a day in school, when it was her last day to pack up everything.

It was a little hard to do but Bella asked for help, without a car and with a time limit Bella walked up to the neighbor's yard when she saw the older woman living there was outside gardening and asked for a favor. It felt incredibly awkward, but Darlene, as she learned the woman was called, drove Bella to the UPS store to buy moving supplies.

By the time Renee came home, the woman was stunned to see a large stack of packed boxes in the entryway. Bella was taking anything she might need, because she wasn't wasting money on this move, she needed the things and Renee was the one who was paying for the shipping. It was cheaper for her to take everything that way. "UPS will pick them up tomorrow morning." Bella told her and went back to cooking her last dinner there. It was probably a little petty of her, but she enjoyed the shocked look on Renee's face as the woman realized how much Bella got done in a single day.

….


	10. Chapter 10

"I'm so sorry this is happening to you Bella." Charlie spoke so roughly, as if he was near tears when he picked her up.

"I was planning to ask you if I could live with you this week." Bella gave him a weak smile, and his eyes showed a little surprise. "I thought maybe I'd move in over the summer or something. I'm not actually upset by what happened."

"Oh," He let out a breath and turned to face out the windshield. They'd just loaded her luggage in the back. She'd brought what she'd need for a week, and the rest was following soon. "That's good." He said as if it was a minor thing, but he squeezed her hand tightly for a moment, before letting it go.

They drove in silence for a while, and Bella stared out the window as they made their way along the one hour drive home. "Once I get settled, I'd like to look for a part time job."

"You do that." He said distractedly and Bella smiled, all while still staring out the window.

They were driving into Forks when he spoke up again. "Your mother is just overwhelmed, you know."

"Oh I know." Bella didn't add that it took nothing to overwhelm her.

"You didn't do anything wrong Bells." He looked at her as he took the turn off the main street, as if he was trying to implant that idea.

"Thanks." She muttered and looked out at the darkened streets.

"The kids around here don't have next week off, their spring break is the week after." She knew that because Emmett had acted like he'd pick her up after school all week, so clearly he was going to school.

"A short test run before time off, should be good." She sighed. "I need to do some shopping, get some warmer clothes, before I start up. I also need to buy some things for the room."

"I'll give you some money." He spoke slowly, "I could take you out to the mall if you need." He didn't sound thrilled to shop with her again and that brought a small hint of a smile to her lips.

"Thanks, but I thought I saw a second hand store in town. I could start there." He frowned, so she spoke up. "I don't mind some second hand things, so that I have more money for nice things to go with them. I honestly don't see the difference between cheap jeans and the expensive ones, my shirt will cover some of it anyhow. I'll get a pants, maybe a couple shirts, and I'll be good until we have time for the mall. I might even see if Emmett's willing to give me a ride later this week. He doesn't know any better yet." She smiled at him, but watched his jaw clench. "I haven't met his girlfriend and it will be a good chance to for us to do something together."

"Oh, well, that's good. It's good you already have friends at school." He gave her a half smile and they pulled into the driveway. Bella noticed, and wasn't surprised, that there was no rusted red truck waiting for her. She was far too early and there was no warning, so Charlie couldn't have bought her a vehicle. She was going to be riding to school in a cop car for a while. She was actually fine with that, it couldn't hurt to remind a few people she was the daughter of the sheriff. She didn't expect she'd get hit on constantly like the Twilight Bella did, she just wasn't the kind of person that inspired that kind of behavior, but why risk it?

She went up to unpack what she had and she would have called Emmett, to tell him about the change of plans, but Charlie was already a bit leery of him and Charlie was hanging out near the one phone in the house. She'd try and find a moment tomorrow to give him a heads up that she'd be at the school Monday. He was out 'camping' for the weekend, he said the whole family was. She didn't let herself think that they were hunting so they could be around her safely. She knew it; she just didn't let herself think about it.

There was no way she was going to walk onto the high school grounds without warning them she was coming. It seemed stupid to even consider that. If he were human, it would be fun to see his face, to surprise him, but it wasn't a good idea to surprise vampires.

"Bells, I'm gonna order some pizza!" Charlie yelled up.

"Do they have salad?" She called back, stepping out of her bedroom.

"I don't know." Charlie sounded puzzled. Bella shook her head and started for the stairs. She wasn't going to start a long term junk food diet. When she was visiting his eating habits weren't too bad to play along with, but now she had to come up with something that would work better.

"Maybe we can go grocery shopping tomorrow too." She told him as she made her way into the living room. "Am I in charge of grocery shopping?" She asked and he frowned.

"What all did you do at your mother's house for chores?" He asked and Bella sighed heavily. This was going to take a while to explain. Perhaps they should call and see if the pizza place had salad before she started.

He was mad, it was pretty clear he was mad, when he heard more about what living like Renee had been like. In his house she had the sweet deal of cleaning up after herself, dumping the garbage, and making the grocery list. Now, he tended to live in a little more mess than Renee's house was, but that was a choice and Bella accepted a certain level of more mess rather than become the housewife of this house. Besides, she was going to be able to get a paying job at some point here. Better not to build up his expectations too high and have to do it all.

In the book Twilight Bella had moved in and immediately taken on all the chores she'd had at her mother's house without even discussing it with Charlie. She really should have talked it out, because she might have saved herself some work. Living with a guy could either be more work or lowered expectations. It was really up to the person moving in.

…..

** Esme POV**

Esme tossed the laundry into the dryer. They hunt was a little more messy than normal with the boys. Emmett was still in celebration mode for having a human friend visiting. Esme smiled a little at that thought. She'd found a lovely recipe to try out when Bella came over to play.

"Family Meeting!" A masculine voice called out suddenly, sounding a bit odd, because he never called these.

"What is it Emmett?" Esme asked as she flashed into the living room.

Alice was staring out as if trying to force a vision. "I didn't even see her make up her mind." She muttered.

Jasper, Rosalie and Carlisle made it into the room. Edward was away for the week, visiting the Denalis in Alaska. Esme had agreed that it was better for him to just take an extended trip for this week Bella was here.

Emmett was normally rather happy, but something was definitely up. "Did something happen with Bella?" Esme asked, thinking perhaps the trip had been cancelled.

Emmett's shoulders slumped a little. "Bella's mother kicked her out. I can't believe her mother actually did that. Poor Bella Bear." He looked so sad, but Esme felt a flair of anger inside of her.

"Oh, so Bella didn't decide to do this." Alice sighed and Esme glanced at her. Alice looked around the room. "Bella's starting school with us tomorrow morning."

"Thank God Edward left, but what are we going to do?" Rosalie's voice was tense.

"I'm her only friend. I'm not leaving her to deal with bullies here too. Not after her mother threw her away." Emmett's eyes were darkening. Esme felt her own eyes darkening at his words. What kind of a mother could do that to their child, never mind a child who'd lost her entire life history like Bella had? Renee was selfish, Carlisle told her Bella said that, but this was beyond selfish. The only good thing about it was that they knew Bella had wanted to live with her father instead, but Rosalie was right. They now needed to figure out what to do, Emmett couldn't abandon the girl when she needed him and yet Edward belonged with his family as well, and he'd only left to avoid temptation for the week. Bella's trip was now permanent.

"Good idea Jasper." Alice spoke up and Esme turned her head to take in the radiant smile Alice gave her mate. Jasper hadn't said anything, so clearly it was a decision he'd considered that Alice saw would work. Alice turned to them. "We can send Edward things with Bella's scent, try to desensitize him a bit before he comes back. It'll be hard for him, but it is possible, if we make sure he doesn't have any classes with her or directly after her in the same room, and we don't invite her over too often to the house."

Jasper spoke up, "We might want to make sure that one of us is either with Edward or Bella all day at school, so they aren't both unsupervised at the same time."

"Basically, Edward's getting the full newborn experience all over again?" Emmett smirked. As Esme thought about it, it was a little like the training that many of them went through as they finished their newborn year and were going to start to try and interact with humans again, only all focused on one human.

Esme felt a bit of disappointment at not having Bella around more, because the girl needed a mother's love more than any of her own children, but of course they'd need to control how and when Edward interacted with her.

"She's probably going to need her schedule changed." Alice muttered. "Emmett and I can take care of that."

"What, are we going to break into the school and break into the computers?" Emmett's eyes seemed to light up.

"No, we're going to tell Bella to switch her classes." Alice spoke and Esme felt relieved at that 'mission impossible' being so simple. She was sure she'd end up bailing Emmett out of jail otherwise.

…

Bella had the foresight to ask Charlie when he showered, so they wouldn't compete for the room. She'd learned to do that in college, and she was fine showering at night and sleeping in in the morning. Still, with the bathroom not far from her bedroom, she was awake a little earlier than she'd prefer.

She got dressed in her room, and used a small mirror to help her do her hair. Once Charlie was out of the bathroom she rushed in to finish up getting ready and met him in the kitchen for his attempt at making breakfast. He proved he could make eggs, but he did warn her it was really all he'd ever learned to make well. Bella decided to teach that man to cook, just some simple things, maybe just four things. He needed to know how and that way he'd have to practice. That might reduce the number of pizzas that came into the house.

"I thought I'd drop you off on my way in to work." Charlie grimaced, "but you might need the school bus to get home."

"I think I might be going over to Emmett's house after school. That was our plan before all this happened." Bella watched his mustache twitch a bit unhappily. "He told me I better be hungry too, because Esme wanted to cook something special, so I might miss dinner."

"That's okay Bells." Charlie sighed. "You go play your 'games' and have fun. God knows you deserve it." He barely whispered the last words and Bella decided to not reply. "Just keep up on your homework." He realized he should say something parental apparently and Bella smirked at him, before getting up to grab her school supplies.

The school had a few cars peppered around the place, but Bella noticed that the cluster in one area was the teachers, and the scattering of other cars were probably students with zero hour. She'd love to finish school faster, but she couldn't make herself even consider zero hour.

"Well, here we are." Charlie said while stopping the car in front of the main office doors. "Did you need me to go in with you?"

"No, I think I can pick up papers and a map easy enough." She smiled at him, even as he was glancing around for other students. There weren't many and they were looking, she could tell that much. "Thanks for the ride."

"Sure, see you tonight. If anyone gives you any trouble, you let me know." He stared into her eyes and she just nodded. That was sweet, but hopefully this time not necessary.

As she was getting out of the front of the cop car, she ignored the few eyes that were on her. She waved at Charlie when he waved at her, and then stood there for a moment while he pulled away.

Mrs. Cope smiled at her only after Bella told her who she was, instead of when she noticed a student was in front of the counter. "I have your schedule around here somewhere." The woman muttered as she looked through a stack of papers on her desk. "Your father came in Friday to get you all set up."

"Did you get my information from Phoenix?" Bella asked as she watched the woman finally appear to find something on that desk.

"Oh yes dear." Mrs. Cope even sounded distracted as she looked at the papers she'd found and then pulled out a few more sheets from her desk to add to it.

The door opened and Bella glanced at it, not expecting to find she knew the man standing in it. "Emmett." Bella smiled when she noticed he looked happy, was grinning from ear to ear actually, to see her. She'd been a little worried about that, once she'd left the message telling him she was living here now.

"Bella Bear." His voice was a little too loud for the small office and Mrs. Cope did frown at him. Bella took a step away from the counter as the woman was apparently just had to answer the phone. "Coming to dreary old Forks are you?" He moved to stand in front of her and once he'd moved his huge body Bella realized that there was another vampire behind him. It had to be Alice, she was just perfect for an Alice. Her hair was wild and untamed, but still perfect. She was short, and standing next to Emmett she looked shorter still. Even though Bella was taller than the vampire there was no mistaking Alice for a child, the pale skinned dark haired vampire wore her clothes as if she were a runway model. It made Bella a little self-conscience about what she was wearing, and that was really hard to do. She normally didn't care too much. She hadn't cared too much since she found herself a teenager again.

"It's nice to meet you Bella, I'm Alice. Emmett's sister." Bella smiled weakly at the psychic vampire and wondered if there was a problem. Alice was the Cullen problem solver after all.

"Hi." Bella's voice squeaked embarrassingly and she cleared her throat. She glanced at Mrs. Cope, who was taking a message, so Bella was still not getting that schedule. Good thing she asked Charlie to take her in early today. Her eyes moved back to Alice. "It's nice to meet you."

"I'm sure we'll be great friends." Alice smiled at her and it was a touch of déjà vu, didn't Alice say that to Twilight Bella? "Maybe you'll even have a few classes with me. Emmett tells me you're a sophomore as well."

"Yep," Bella sighed heavily, yes, she was a sophomore, again. That meant two more years after this and then she had to redo her entire college education. She was picking a cheaper school this time, and definitely not building up such a pack of loans that she couldn't afford a house for years with the size of her student loan payments.

Mrs. Cope hung up the phone and continued to the counter, so Bella stepped up to it again. "I have your schedule, and these forms are for you to give the teachers, so they can sign them. You need to bring me your forms at the end of the day." Seemed simple enough, a stupid wasteful step, but simple. Of course she'd be in class today, did they think that she was plotting to get her schedule and then, since the teachers were none the wiser, just never go?

Bella could feel that Alice had stepped closer to her and was looking at her schedule as she was, but it was odd, because the heat of someone standing too close wasn't there. She'd never even thought about that heat before, but it was clashing to miss it. They both read what Bella had.

Bella found one obvious problem right away. "Um, Music?" She muttered and then Alice leaned into her side even more. Bella tenses as she noticed how the small vampire seemed to inhale deeply before speaking.

"If you don't want Music, you could try and take drawing with me." Alice offered. Bella found her schedule slowly taken from her hands as Alice studied it. Alice spoke more quietly, as if to keep Mrs. Cope from hearing it even though the woman was standing in front of them a little impatiently. "And I don't know that you want…" Alice proceeded to take a pen off the counter and start to mark up the schedule and Bella stood back and stared at her as she did it. Clearly there was a problem with her schedule if Alice was going to this extreme.

As Alice worked Bella focused on how she could respond to this. It was odd and normally she'd never let someone else just take over like this, but there had to be a reason. She looked up at Emmett as Alice actually started to try and charm Mrs. Cope into some changes.

"It'll be nice to have someone to sit next to in some classes." She smiled, as if this was all about making sure she had friends.

"Bella." Mrs. Cope tugged her attention away from Emmett and Bella turned to face her. "Do you really want to redo your entire schedule?" It sounded like Mrs. Cope wanted her to say no.

Bella looked down at the schedule that Alice was trying to talk them all into and it had switched three classes around, not the entire thing. It looked okay to her, but other than the music class, the last one looked okay too. She looked up to see Alice giving her cute pleading eyes, an Alice trademark if the books were to be believed.

Bella looked up and stared into Mrs. Cope's eyes. "Can we do this?" She tapped the marked up schedule.

"Well that's not the point," Mrs. Cope started and Bella's face became more serious.

"No, that is the point. I'm going to be the weird kid that suddenly had to move in with her dad. It would be nice to have a friend in a class or two." She stared into the woman's eyes, "Have you ever been the last one picked, all the time, for partners?" It wasn't only in this re-run of high school that Bella experienced that joy, and she could see in Mrs. Cope's eyes the woman understood. Something about the woman made Bella suspect that she would know what Bella was talking about. There was no more arguing, the woman just sat down at the computer and reworked the schedule.

"Wow, Bella Bear, you sure have a scary stare." Emmett muttered as they waited for the new schedule to appear. "Bella Bear, with the scary stare."

"Let it go Dr. Seuss." Alice mumbled, before sliding a little closer to where Bella was leaning against the counter. "Don't worry, you won't have a problem with partners here." Alice gave her a small hint of a smile.

When they got the new schedule, Alice took it again and this time she wrote in which classes she'd be sharing with her or one of her family. Bella was a little confused when one of her class changes hadn't resulted in a Cullen in her class, but she said nothing, as if she didn't know which classes had been added or subtracted.

"Bella, if you sit with us during lunch you'll probably never make other friends." Emmett told her quietly as they made their way toward the main doors. "Maybe for this week at least you should see if there are people you can sit with."

Someone at the Cullen table didn't want her around, Bella had no trouble reading between those lines. She just nodded, and while she wasn't looking forward to Mike and his crew, she resigned herself to it if they offered.

"After school you're coming over and I'll kick your butt on the PlayStation." He said with a smile and they stood still for a moment. "My class is this way." He pointed in different direction than Bella was heading.

"I'll walk with you to class Bella." Alice offered softly and Bella waved to Emmett before following Alice down the right hall. "What do you do for fun? Well, other than computer games?" Bella resisted the urge to say she wasn't actually all that obsessed with games, it was just something she had somewhat in common with Emmett and he bought her the game.

The halls were a little more crowded, there were people milling around and watching them, but they still had a good ten minutes before class would start. Bella frowned as she considered the question. What did she do for fun? "I read." She managed to say, but Alice didn't look any more impressed than Bella was with that one.


	11. Chapter 11

Bella wanted to just sit down next to Alice and try and blend in, but the teacher was at her desk and so she went up to get her form signed and introduce herself. In exchange she got a book she'd never pick up to read voluntarily. It was probably as old as Alice was.

"Guess it was too much to hope for Huckleberry Finn." She muttered as she sat down next to Alice.

Alice gave off a bell like laugh, but it was brief. Still it earned them a few astonished head turns from the other students that came a little early to class. "You like Twain?"

"Actually, I do." Bella did remember actually liking those stories, even though she didn't tend to like old books too much.

"You say that like you're surprised." Alice gave her a teasing smirk that was distracting Bella from her thoughts. "What do you read, since you say you do it for fun?"

"I really jump around a bit. Some fantasy, some non-fiction, once in a while I might pick up a comedian's book." Bella answered vaguely hoping to not really have a discussion about her reading habits.

"No romances?" Alice's yellow eyes seemed to sparkle as she smiled.

"God no, stupid women falling all over themselves to land a man that doesn't respect them. Not my cup of tea." Bella shook her head and Alice tilted her head to the side to study her. Bella started to blush and then focused her attention back down at the blurb on the back of the novel she was just given. There was no way Bella was going to admit that she also occasionally read internet porn, not the cheap stuff, she hunted for good stories, but they were porn, or she used to since she didn't have a computer now. Her sex life was on hold, and she had teenage hormones. She couldn't tell yet if teenage hormones were worse than the 'height of her sexual peak' years that she'd just started before bodysnatching or whatever she did. Luckily class was clearly getting ready to start, ending any further conversation on the topic. While the class discussed the novel in front of her, Bella spent the class period trying to speed read the damn thing so she could catch up.

After class, while Bella was shoving her binder and new book into her backpack she felt something cool and soft wrap around her neck. She turned to have Alice staring at her neck, which might be a bit dangerous, but Alice was tying on the fashionable scarf she'd been wearing herself. "You're outfit needed a little something." Alice smiled up at her once it was on, and she'd adjusted it. "You can borrow that for the day."

Bella frowned a little, and wished there was a mirror, because she dressed up a little for the first day of school, she'd forgone just a t-shirt, and did have a button up shirt, but it wasn't that nice. "It looks okay?" She asked doubtfully.

"It helps, but you really need to work on your wardrobe." Alice shook her head.

"It's on my to do list, but that list is kind of huge right now." Bella admitted and then her eyes widened when the little vampire seemed to start to glow from the inside with energy as she started to smile widely.

"I could take you shopping." Alice's words were almost easy to predict.

Bella sighed. "I don't know if you'd like shopping with me. I heard you're well," Bella grimaced. "I am a bargain hunter. I'll spend three hours and come out of the mall with two shirts. No one likes shopping with me." Bella used one arm to sling her backpack over one shoulder, but Alice quickly leaned in to take her unoccupied arm.

"If you need money, I could help you out." Alice spoke as they started for the doors, ignoring the fact that there was a lot of whispering going on.

"It isn't that." Bella spoke quickly. "I have a thing about wasting money, it really bothers me." Normally as part of that explanation she'd tell someone she grew up in a family that barely had enough, but she wasn't supposed to have a history anymore. Instead she thought about all the things she needed or wanted to buy. "And I have to make mine stretch. I need more than just clothes. I need furniture, I can only dream about a computer at this point." She sighed heavily, while she walked, but she was also debating about shaking her arm a little, to see if it would make Alice let go and just walk along beside her normally. Perhaps Alice thought friends walked around like this, but Bella had never been one to hang off of other people and Alice's scent was probably distracting her as much as hers was distracting Alice. Bella was stunned by how good a vampire smelled. Alice's fingers were cold, but that only served to make Bella even more aware that she was being touched. People just didn't touch Bella. "And I need to save for a car, because until I have a car I'm trapped at the house unless I have Charlie taxi me around. There is no way it is possibly legal for me to drive his squad car, and he doesn't have a regular car for me to borrow."

"Let's try shopping together." Alice spoke just a little more calmly, and she moved to walk backwards in front of Bella. Bella did not miss the confidence Alice had in walking that way either, they didn't slow down. Some students moved out of their way, but it wasn't really that many that did that. More were just staring at the girl a Cullen was willing to talk to, the new girl. Bella was aware of it, she'd learned to be aware of a lot in high school hallways. Alice smiled. "Out of my family I'm your best bet for a shopping partner."

"I hear you throw money around like it means nothing. I might actually develop an ulcer if I see you do that." Bella spoke flatly, imagining that waste and the arguments that could happen with a spendthrift and a shopaholic in the mall. "I don't think you could shop like I do." Alice's eyes narrowed a little and Bella saw she'd hit a nerve and smirked. She might have a way to control the little vampire. "I have gone shopping and come out with bags of clothes for a hundred dollars, and they all work together so I have several outfits out of it." She let her smirk become larger and more obvious and Alice started to pout.

"I could do that. I'm practically a professional shopper, I've been shopping for," And the pause was a little too long. "A long time and I am amazing at it."

"Only because your dad is rich." Bella was starting to have fun teasing Alice. Alice stopped walking backwards and moved to walk beside her.

"We'll see. You and I are shopping this week." Alice told her and then pointed to a door. "That's your classroom. I won't see you until fourth period Art. I'll have a shopping plan all ready by then."

"No, actually I'll have the shopping plan." Bella countered with a raised eyebrow. The black haired vampire gave her a sexy challenging smile, before turning as if it were a dance they were doing and walking off gracefully.

Bella turned to see a few people in the US History class were glancing out at her as she stepped into the room. She had no Cullens with her for this class. It wasn't until she was sitting down that she remembered she had the scarf on. Bella tugged a little of it away from her enough to see it. At least the color went with her shirt. It was an age inappropriate accessory for a teenager, scarves were something that went better with business clothes and your thirties.

The history book was a thick textbooks that smelled of dust. Bella went to the front, picked it up from the teacher and had her form signed, while doing her best to ignore the stares she was getting. Bella moved to take an empty seat, and those were all towards the back this late in the school year. Once she asked her new tablemate if the seat was opened she sat down heavily and plopped the heavy textbook down on the table.

The boy in the seat in front of her swiveled around to face her as soon as she'd sat down. "New Girl." He smiled at her in an overly friendly way. "How are you finding Forks so far?" He had a bit of energy in him, Bella thought as she considered her answer.

"I like it so far." She gave him a small smile back. "And I'm Bella, not New Girl."

"Well, Bella, I'm Eric." He spoke and then held out a hand for a shake, unusual for high school, but she did it. "I'm on the school newspaper and still I didn't hear we had a new girl until this morning. You slipped in under the radar." Bella was a little surprised that she had to pull her hand away from him, he didn't let go like normal.

"I decided to short circuit the rumor mill by moving quickly." She gave him a fake smile he didn't appear to detect at all.

Class was started and it forced him to turn around. Bella took good notes during class, as she attempted to figure out where they were in the book and what she'd need to cover to catch up before the next test. It wasn't too bad, but it also wasn't too interesting. She flipped through the book and the syllabus to see how far it went and sighed heavily when history apparently stopped in the 1980's. There went the easy grade, if they'd gone further she'd remember things she'd lived through more, which was probably how the Cullen's dealt with this class.

Once class was over Bella tried to stuff the large textbook into her bookbag, and when she slung it over her shoulder again she decided she'd have to visit her locker, which she'd been assigned but didn't go to, before lunch. She wasn't carrying all her books all day long. "So Bella, what class do you have next?" Erik turned to face her with a helpful look on his face, one that was a bit too eager. Bella decided that tomorrow Charlie was going to drop her off when it was much busier, so more people saw him. Perhaps she could ask him to glare around the parking lot too. He'd probably love to do it.

"I've got Algebra." She muttered and watched his smile dim a little.

"Oh, damn, well, I could still walk you to class. It isn't too far from my journalism class." He offered, and remembering the need to make friends, or at least make friendly, Bella accepted the help. "My homie Mike is in that class." He said as if it made sense for an obvious geek to talk like that. "Jessica too, I'll introduce you."

As they walked through the crowded hall, Bella easily noticed how it was more crowded when you didn't have a vampire parting the humans for you. She got a little jostled, but everyone was getting jostled so it wasn't personal.

"You so have to sit with us for lunch." Eric told her while he was pointing out the door they were aiming for. "I'll save you a seat." Bella gave him a grateful smile, because then she wouldn't need to hunt down a place to go. It kind of upset her that she had friends, but because they didn't actually eat they didn't want her at their table. She at least hoped that was why they didn't want her there. Maybe if she could prove oblivious enough in this week to anything she saw they might ease up on that rule.

The Algebra teacher actually had to kick Eric out, he was determined to continue talking with Bella. Once he was gone and she'd gotten her slip signed and added another book to her collection she reluctantly took the seat next to Jessica.

When Jessica attempted to ask her questions about her move, or the rumor she'd been seen talking to a Cullen, Bella whispered to her. "I really need to concentrate in this class. It's my worst subject." She didn't volunteer that by worst subject she meant she tended to earn 'B's' in it. In her efforts to not listen to Jessica, her Algebra grades might just improve on their own.

As Bella sat watching the example being done on the board she considered the Twilight book, and really wondered if this was the group of students she wanted to be a part of. Jessica was a backstabber, she knew that already. Hell, without the warning of that book, just looking into Jessica's eyes was enough to know she was motivated by jealousy.

It wasn't a surprise that when Mike offered to help her find her next class, Jessica was quick to point out that Bella was going in the opposite direction. It didn't matter, because Bella had a map and wasn't eager to be drilled about herself and her move, or her walk through the halls with Alice, on her way to drawing.

In the end it really hadn't mattered, because she was only halfway to the art room when a small vampire slid up next to her to show her the way.

…..

** Emmett POV**

"Did you see the new girl?" Emmett could overhear some boy saying as he made his way to lunch. "I've got to tap that." Her eyes moved to glare at the back of the head of Mike Newton, and his fist clenched a little.

"If she pays him even the slightest bit of attention, we'll warn her." Rose told him in a whisper, while wrapping his fist in her hand. He looked over at Rose to say something, but then noticed the tension in her eyes. His hand opened up and he twisted his wrist to capture her hand in his, before squeezing it gently. "She's not equipped to deal with teenage boys."

"Rosie, you didn't see her deal with Mrs. Cope. Somehow I think she's a little stronger than you think she is." He told her, but there was no hint of Rose actually listening to what he was saying. His Rosie was giving the back of Mike Newton's head a death stare that would have him pissing himself if he turned around to see it.

They were walking in a little late, after dropping off the morning textbooks and Emmett glanced around the lunchroom as if he hadn't found Bella the second he stepped into it.

"Yep, those are the other Cullens." Jessica's voice easily reached them as they made their way to their table. He glanced their way and noticed with a little amusement how Bella's eyes had widened upon seeing Rose for the first time. "Jasper and Alice are a couple and that," Jessica nodded toward them, "is Emmett and Rosalie." He could hear the long drawn out sigh even as he moved to sit down beside Jasper at their table. "They are together, together, and they are brother and sister. It's disgusting."

"Bella's actually more quietly violent feeling than I thought." Jasper muttered.

"Look who she's sitting with, I think Jessica would make Mother Theresa consider violence." Rose muttered.

"They aren't actually related, Jessica." Angela spoke up, but Emmett was dying to see what was happening at that table. He shifted his seat so he could watch. Angela talked with Bella. "Dr. Cullen and his wife adopted them all."

"Still, they all live together, it isn't right." Jessica muttered angrily and it wasn't the first time they'd overheard her talking about them like this.

"Like you'd turn any of them down if they lived with you and were interested." Bella spoke up and Emmett started to grin.

"I know, they are beautiful, aren't they?" Angela quietly agreed and Emmett turned his grin to Jasper, ignoring the slap to his chest Rose gave him.

Alice laughed suddenly and then turned to grin at Jasper. Emmett hated when she did that, but listened harder to see if he could find out what was so funny.

"Which one wouldn't you turn down Bella? The only single one isn't here today, and he doesn't date." Jessica's voice was irritating and it was clear she was baiting his Bella Bear.

Emmett looked over again to see Bella smirking at him. "So you mean I'd get two for one if I picked one of these?" He laughed as she said that. "I love a bargain."

"What, oh gross." Jessica turned away from Bella, but he didn't miss how the girl studied their table for a moment.

"Bella's amused now, she was irritated before." Jasper told them.

"Well, Bella Bear is funny as hell." Emmett grinned big at his brother.

These kids kept asking her stupid questions, especially Erik, and knowing Bella only had maybe nine months of memories, she was doing amazing at trying to hide that. Maybe this was part of why Bella didn't have friends. He did smile once in a while when the kids teased her about 'bargain hunting', and enjoyed how Jessica bristled every single time, but Bella was laughing it off easily.

"Come on, it's almost time for class." He told Rose as he moved to stand up and held a hand out for her to pull herself up as well. "She's in our class."

"It's a junior level class." Rose turned to look at him. She hadn't been there when Alice and Emmett saw Bella's schedule.

"She took it early at her last school, so she's in Junior Biology now." He was happy with that. It was his only class with her, but at least he had one. The class was full, and everyone was partnered up, so he was going to see if the teacher would give Bella two partners for the price of one. He smirked at his own thoughts there, as he planned to move a chair up to their table for Bella. For this one human, he didn't think Rose would mind.


	12. Chapter 12

Bella sat through the entire lunch, and found she was starting to enjoy it, but not because the kids were fascinating, no she enjoyed teasing Jessica, and knowing that she'd been the one to make Emmett laugh so loudly at his table. Angela was quiet and nice enough, Mike was creepy, Jessica was a bitch and Lauren wasn't worth even mentioning. Eric was a little annoying, but overall good hearted. If she could just split the group in half she'd be happy with them, but it looked like you took the good with the bad in this group. Too bad the bad was bad in so many ways.

Bella was surprised that the boys were interested, and she guessed it proved that Twilight Bella was popular with the small town boys simply because she was someone they hadn't grown up with and wasn't a scary vampire. Now Bella had to decide how to deal with Mike and Eric, and then there was Jacob, and had to hope that no more teenage boys would take notice of her.

Biology was in a direction none of the sophomores at her lunch table were going, thankfully, because Eric was easily pulled away by a perceptive Angela.

As Bella considered how to keep some irritating boys away Edward also came to mind, though he was likely to be more dangerous than the others. Edward, now there was a question. It sounded like the 'single Cullen' was missing today, so Bella wasn't so lucky as to have him not living here. The fact that he missed school on her first day couldn't be an accident. Still, Emmett expected her to visit tonight, as far as she could tell, so Edward wasn't just missing school. Bella sighed as she considered that this time perhaps he didn't wait to meet his singer before fleeing town. Of course, Bella had given as much warning as she could, so she should be happy it was working, but she was just leery of the whole thing with him. She'd stopped being able to wait and see if it was safe to be near him, either because of her blood or her mind.

It was a force of will to push those thoughts from her mind as Bella just focused on today. That's how she'd been getting through this entire unbelievable mess her life had become, and it would have to do for today. She couldn't plan anything, do anything, the ball was in his court and she had to wait to see what he served up.

As Bella tried to reroute her thoughts she considered the vampires she'd seen and never met in person at that table. Jasper was glued to Alice's side during lunch, but they weren't being overly demonstrative about it otherwise. It made Bella wonder if Alice was keeping other emotions at bay for him. It wasn't a question she could ask, but it was interesting to speculate.

Rosalie had been a shock to see and Bella still felt like her eyes must have deceived her. She was almost glad she'd never seen a picture of Rosalie before, because she was sure she'd have been more tongue tied when trying to talk to the blonde vampire over the phone. Alice was beautiful, more so than any human here, but Rosalie was so far beyond anyone Bella had seen before it was actually a bit scary.

Now she had to go to class, and perhaps sit near her. Emmett and Rosalie had to be lab partners, so Bella was not sure where she'd be or how unlucky her selection of lab partners would be, but if she wanted to pass this class Bella knew she'd have to make sure to sit in front of Rosalie, so she couldn't possibly get lost in staring at her. It had taken determination to not stare during lunch. Rosalie had to be tired of humans staring at her and Bella was determined to be better than that, but damn, it was going to be a challenge. How old was she when she was turned anyhow? No teenager could ever be such a goddess.

As Bella stepped into the Biology classroom she noticed the fan in the corner and took a moment to glare at it. That fan was what caused Twilight Bella more problems in this class. It made this Bella a little self-conscious about stepping in front of it on her way to the teacher's desk.

Her eyes traveled to a grinning Emmett and the brief soft smile Rosalie gave her, before she focused on the teacher. "I'm in this class." She told him and held out the form she needed signed.

This teacher took the time to read her slip, which had some basic information about her, like grade and name. "This is junior level Biology." He told her and he sounded baffled as to why she'd be there.

"I took it early." She smiled at him and didn't add that it wasn't because she wanted it; she just wanted to get it over with. He smiled back.

"Well, Emmett already talked to me. We have an odd number of students in the class, so he suggested you join Rosalie and him." The teacher pointed out where Emmett and Rosalie were sitting in the back of the room. Emmett pointed to a chair he'd added to the table. "As the only trio, I want you to make sure you do your fair share of the work. I didn't agree to this so one of you could skate by."

He handed her the slip, signed and she nodded as she made her way to the back of the room. "Tell me I won't have to carry your butt. You get good grades, right?" Bella asked Emmett quietly as she slipped into the chair he'd put on one side of him. He was large enough to block the sight of Rosalie if Bella proved to have no discipline.

"Hey," He pretended to pout. "Rosalie's your partner too and you aren't asking her that."

"Because I doubt she'd find it amusing to fail once in a while." Bella leaned forward to smile at Rosalie. The answering smile was enough to make Bella's heart pound a little faster. Bella tried to see if that was controllable, especially when Emmett appeared to smirk for no reason he could say. "Hey Rosalie, it's nice to meet you in person for a change."

"You to Bella. I hope school is better here so far." Rosalie's smile faded a bit, but the way the blonde vampire glanced around the room made it clear it wasn't anything Bella did.

"So far, much better." Bella told her and then tugged her new biology book in front of her. "So, tell me we've already done the frog dissections, because I don't want to redo that."

"Been done." Emmett spoke up, and it made sense to have him talk. Talking around his huge frame wasn't easy with the setup they had. "But I hear we're working up to a pig."

"Oh god." Bella muttered.

"Why did you take Biology if you hate it?" Rosalie asked.

"To get it over with." Bella muttered, but then the teacher was standing up and she had to figure out how much work she needed to put in to catch up to this class. Bella concentrated on notes and flipping through chapters like mad. She didn't want homework tonight, it was her visit to Emmett's house, so she was working at a mad pace.

"You aren't a lot of fun in class." Emmett complained quietly at one point. It was all lecture today so he'd have to talk quietly.

"I'm trying to keep from having homework, so we can hang out." Bella muttered back. "That was Charlie's big demand, I can hang out with you and your family as long as my homework gets done." She wrote down something the teacher was saying. "Besides, did you not catch he's watching us."

"Bella, can you tell the class what the," Bella sighed heavily as she was given a question to answer. She'd tried to warn Emmett about this and she got caught. Unlike with other students, even with her in the back seat, most everyone turned to see her try and answer this question. She was new, that was enough to make even Biology interesting apparently.

Fortunately, like many teachers, he asked a question he'd already answered earlier in the class. Bella didn't understand the answer, but she was able to say it out loud and got nothing more than a stern look for not paying attention.

When she glanced at Emmett he was grinning at her as if that was funny. Bella sighed heavily and did her best to focus on her notes for a bit longer. "Ass." She whispered and he chuckled.

"I brought my jeep today." Emmett spoke up as the class bell was nearly ready to go off. "Rose and I will drive you to my place."

"Sounds good." Bella told him and started to pack up her things, like the others were doing. She had gym last, so she needed to really get moving after the bell rang. She had to get a pe locker, change, and still get to the gym on time. "I'll try and hurry, but I ended up with sixth period PE."

"We'll wait if you need to shower." Rosalie added and Bella just sighed and nodded. Probably would be a good idea to shower before visiting vampires. Her sweat would be much more potent to them. Damn, Bella resigned herself to showers, probably cool showers, before visiting the Cullens. She hated cold showers, but since hot ones made her pale skin flush she was aware it was probably bringing her blood closer to the surface.

"Okay, and I'll hurry as much as I can." Bella told Rosalie, and for the first time failed to not stare. Bella was so relieved that it wasn't PE she shared with Rosalie, because there was no way she'd have the willpower to not peek if Rosalie was changing clothes in front of her. That might mess up her friendship with the whole lot of them, if she did that. The straightest girl in the world would peek at Rosalie, so Bella had no chance in hell of avoiding that temptation if it were there. It was hard to not wonder if that perfection carried all the way down.

When the bell went off, Bella rushed out because she could feel herself starting to blush. She didn't want Emmett asking why.

Twilight Bella was painfully uncoordinated, and Bella could admit that she'd been a bit wobbly in the new body when she first got it, but she was doing okay with it now. What she wasn't doing okay with was Mike's hovering as she attempted to do the make shift circuit training the teacher had set up, with jump ropes, stairs, and other cardio tortures.

"I'm afraid I'm very busy with my move." She told him while cursing the need to use the hula hoop station around any teenage boy. "And I'm not dating this year." She caught him watching her ass and let out a angry huff of air, before controlling herself. "I've just got too much going on."

"Well, what about going out as friends." He pushed and she grabbed her hula hoop before it fell, and turned to him.

"Thanks for the offer, but I'm just too busy." Her voice was flat and cold, and he looked startled.

"Okay, okay, maybe later." He gave her a smile and finally took the hint to leave her alone. Bella glanced at the clock and sighed. Class was almost over by the time he got it. She was starting to wonder if having that group as friends was worth dealing with Mike. Being a loner wasn't really all that bad.

The minute, the second, the teacher released them for the lockers, Bella rushed in there. She didn't have soap, but it looked like some generic type was kept near the showers, so it was something. She did notice only a small percent of the girls bothered with the showers. She didn't do her hair, hoping that wasn't a mistake, because she didn't have a hair dryer.

She did feel a little bad when she slipped out of the school and noticed that there weren't many student cars left. Rosalie and Emmett were standing in front of his Jeep chatting quietly and they seemed to know the minute she was outside, because they both turned to face her. "Hey guys. Sorry I took so long." Bella managed to say loud enough to carry to them, in spite of knowing she could have whispered it. It was a little creepy how they both knew she was there so fast, without even facing her. She moved to take the stairs just a little faster than normal.

Bella took the passenger seat that was offered her, and shifted just a little so she could see both of the other people in the jeep. Rosalie sat behind Emmett, but one of her hands rested comfortably on his shoulder. It was actually kind of cute how they were still in physical contact like that.

"So how was your first day of school?" Rosalie asked, her voice unusually soft again, like the vampire sometimes did over the phone.

"I think I might have picked the wrong kids to have lunch with." Bella muttered and thought about it. "Angela is okay and Eric might be once he calms down, but the others are jerks."

"I know, I wasn't too impressed with them either." Rosalie told her and then spoke more slowly. "Did anyone give you any trouble?"

Bella noticed Emmett was being unusually quiet so that Rosalie could talk with her, he was apparently focusing on listening and driving. Bella didn't like that the driving was getting faster, but she held her tongue about it, because she'd read enough to know it was going to get faster and a vampire would have the reflexes for that. She'd never attempt to go too fast, but then she'd never had a car that could do it either. "Jessica was easy enough to deal with." Bella admitted. "Mike might be harder."

"What did Mike do?" Rosalie's voice got harder, and Bella could see now why a glare from this vampire scared the boys away. Maybe she should try that.

"He spent almost an hour not taking no for an answer when he asked me out." Bella told her and watched the glare get more intense. "I'm going to have to be incredibly rude to him to make him go away, aren't I?"

"Oh, I could take care of that for you Bella Bear." Emmett spoke up finally, and Bella glanced at him to see he had an evil looking grin on his face.

"Let me try first." She told him, but if she couldn't do it she had no problem letting Emmett scare the boy away. "I need the practice."

Rosalie smiled at that and her smile was completely disarming in how sexy it was. It showed she was pleased and held a hint of evil glee in Mike's upcoming shut down, it took a perfect model and turned her into a sexy evil queen for just a moment and it was enough to make Bella heart pound. She quickly turned to stare out the windshield and try and calm her reaction, but her body betrayed her with a blush. "Um, trying to race time Emmett?" She muttered about the speed they were taking the backroads.

She could see his lips were barely moving and he grinned quickly, all without making a sound she could hear. Bella sighed heavily and found herself blushing even more. They were talking about her in front of her, she was sure of it. She didn't dare risk looking back at Rosalie again right now.

Damn, pretty was one thing, but sexy was a whole other level. It was unfair that Rosalie could switch from one to the next so effortlessly.

…


	13. Chapter 13

The turn off for the driveway was really hidden. Bella almost thought they were swerving off the road for a moment, until she saw the branches hanging down were framing an opening that lead to a dirt path. "The entrance to the Batcave is probably easier to find." She muttered and then had to grimace as Emmett's laugh was too loud for the enclosed Jeep. They were going much slower, but they moved further and further into the woods. "Damn, you really hate neighbors, don't you?" Bella muttered as the driveway went on for what must be miles. It made sense for the Cullens to live far away from others, but she'd never seen a house so far away from the street before.

"We're almost there." Emmett told her, even as they took one last turn and a house was revealed.

"Nice." Bella muttered as the house came into view. It had an inviting covered porch, deep enough to sit on even in the rain and stay dry. That was important in a place like Forks, no point in a porch if it didn't protect from the rain. It was three stories tall, and seemed big, but then they had a lot of people living in it. "I wish I had a porch." She found herself saying.

Emmett just chuckled at her. They pulled up alongside the house and without the house in the way she could see there was a second building there, a garage. It made sense, knowing their love of cars. Emmett just parked on the side of the house and left his Jeep out though. "Come on, Esme's dying to hear how your day was." Emmett told her and Bella noticed Rosalie give her an amused look, before Rosalie slid out of the Jeep. Bella opened her door, and before she could make the short hop it took to get out of the Jeep, Emmett was there to help her down. His hands dwarfed hers, and his arms were huge. She knew she weighed nothing to him, but still felt odd about his picking her up by the waist and putting her down on the ground safely.

"Thanks." She gave him a small smile, but let go of his arms as soon as she was down, and took a step back away from him. His vampire scent clung to her a little. The traitorous blush was back and she looked at the house, while hoping it would go away.

"Well, let's head in." Rosalie spoke, and Bella found her giving Bella a small smile and pointing toward the front of the house.

Bella's eyes took in the lightly furniture porch eagerly. She noticed the house was an older style, so when Emmett opened the door and she followed him in she stopped just passed the entry way. "Oh, open concept. Sweet." She took in a large living space, one that older houses never had. The flooring was all a rather light color, mostly wood, and it made the room seem even more spacious. The furniture was perfect, modern, clean lines, everything she'd ever wanted. She glanced around at the ceiling, and noticed the beams. It had been remodeled, there used to be walls. The most striking thing about the huge room though, for Bella was the entire wall of windows on the back side of the room. "Oh," She took a step towards it, taking in the amazing view.

A light feminine laughing tore her eyes away from the window and Bella turned her head to see Esme watching her, standing in front of a piano. "I guess you like it." Her smile was radiant, something Bella could have done without since she was already embarrassed about not even seeing her there. She didn't need to look like a movie star, because that made it all the sadder that she'd been overlooked to begin with in Bella's excitement of seeing the perfect room.

"I think she drooled a little." Emmett spoke up and Bella turned to give him a playful glare.

"I'm giving you a tour." Esme spoke up and Emmett started to groan. Bella noticed that Esme's eyes turned to stare into his, and there was a bit of a challenge in them. "Come along Bella. I know you'll appreciate all my hard work." And that one guilt trip was all it took for Emmett to not insist that Bella sit down and play video games immediately.

Vampires were fighting over her time. It felt kinda good. She couldn't remember a time when she'd ever been tugged around like this. "I'll kick your butt soon enough, get a soft pillow, you'll need it when I'm done." Bella boasted, but she knew she was going to be losing a lot of video games today.

"Ohh," A voice from the stairs called down and Bella glanced up to see Jasper giving Emmett a teasing look. "Did you teach her to trash talk?" He looked at her. "Hi, Ma'am. I'm Jasper."

"Nice to meet you Jasper, I'm Bella." She gave him a small smile, but noticed he preferred to say hello from way up on the top of the stairs. She didn't make her way over to him, in case there was a reason for that.

"Alice is all excited about that shopping challenge you gave her. She'd be out to say hello, but she's researching on the internet for the trip." He grinned and Bella sighed. She shook her head and Esme lead her away to see the rest of the downstairs as Jasper headed back to wherever he came from.

"Actually I told Alice that you came here today as Emmett's friend, and she couldn't steal you because he'd been waiting weeks for you." Esme told Bella quietly, as if it was just the two of them hearing it.

"And then you stole me the minute I was in the door?" Bella gave the brunette vampire a raised eyebrow, and she got a mischievous grin in return.

"I knew you'd want to see the place. I didn't know you'd be so enraptured of it you wouldn't see anyone standing in the room." Esme teased her and Bella sighed heavily. "Once I saw that I knew the tour had to come first."

"You did an amazing job. Did you get it open concept or did you remodel it yourself? Did you put the windows in yourself or did you find it this way?" Bella asked, her words coming faster than normal and Esme seemed to love answering her questions, but they stopped in front of a doorway hidden behind the massive staircase. Esme pushed it opened and Bella stepped into a large, lightfilled kitchen. It looked like a kitchen any serious cook would drool over and Bella knew it was never used. Still she took a few steps in and looked at the breakfast nook, which had an entire wall of windows, and she took in the layout and the cabinets and countertops. "Oh, this is nice." She whispered, as she resisted the urge to open the impressive doors on the fridge, because there might not be anything in there.

"You are definitely an unusual teenager Bella." Esme told her and pulled Bella out of her petting the stone countertops. They were so smooth. Bella had never had anything better than laminate.

"You have no idea." Bella gave Esme a smile and focused her attention on the fact she could smell cooking, in fact she could smell cookies. That was so sweet, she knew vampires didn't like the smell of food and Esme made that for her.

"Would you like some cookies? I made some today." Esme offered and then pulled out a dish of them.

"Oh they smell good." Bella reached out and grabbed two warm cookies. She managed to pretend to not see the hint of a wince as she bit into it. "You are a domestic goddess." Bella reassured Esme and found the woman seem to relax again. The word goddess made Bella feel a little awkward, she probably shouldn't use that word around here, it was too easy to stick her foot in her mouth if she started using that word.

"You can bring those. I want to show you a few more rooms, and my office." Esme led her to the large stairway again, and this time they went up it.

The first room on the left they ran across had an opened door. "This is Rosalie's room." Esme told her and Rosalie was in it. The blonde vampire gave her a small smile, as she looked up from her bed, which she appeared to be sitting on doing homework. It looked a little staged, actually.

The room itself was nice, a little more traditional than the first floor, so that was probably her or Emmett's style. They were lying, because Emmett shared this room and Bella knew it, but she also knew that if they were really seventeen, as they claimed to be, that would be a huge no-no for the parents to even allow that.

Bella ran her eyes over the room quickly, but she was searching for something to say. "If you open the window, you can hear the river from here, can't you?" Bella looked passed Rosalie to the large window her room had as well. A soft smile crossed Bella's lips at the thought of listening to the water while trying to sleep, but then Rosalie didn't sleep, so she didn't say anything about that.

Rosalie had a small mysterious smile for just a moment, "Yes, I can." She said and Bella found herself blushing at the blonde again. She moved her eyes off of Rosalie and back to her room again, fully aware that Esme was watching them too. "Are you really challenging Alice to a shopping contest?"

Rosalie's words had Bella looking back at her and away from the stack of magazines on her dresser. "I didn't call it a contest." Bella frowned at the idea of challenging Alice to any type of shopping contest. "Maybe we should buy the comfortable shoes first." Bella mused, and heard Emmett laughing from downstairs.

"She cheats you know." Rosalie added. "You might want to bring a referee."

"I do not Cheat!" Alice yelled out and Bella glanced at the doorway. The small vampire wasn't standing there, she sounded like she was still in her and Jasper's room.

"Thin walls." Esme muttered to cover up Alice's mistake. She shouldn't have heard any of their conversation. Of course Emmett could claim he wasn't laughing at her, but something on the TV, but Alice really screwed up. Perhaps since Bella was determined to ignore everything, Alice's visions weren't helping her out too much.

"I heard they have a spray foam that you can use on that." Bella went with the excuse. "I spend every morning at Charlie's dreaming of the stuff, because I share a wall with the only bathroom." He was trying to be quiet, but there wasn't much you could do with a bathroom. Still, it made it seem like she believed the lie, hopefully.

"I'll look into that." Esme spoke up a little too quickly. "As for Alice, I'm sure she won't cheat Rosalie."

"I don't know how she could, unless she hides receipts." Bella added, knowing there were ways for a psychic vampire to cheat. "It doesn't really matter though. I'm not as competitive as you seem to think. I didn't call it a contest, she did. If she wants to kill herself trying to beat me she can do it. I just want to get some clothes."

"Okay, just don't ever bet against her on anything. She finds ways to always win." Rosalie added and Esme, for once, just nodded. Bella liked to imagine that was so Alice wouldn't hear her agreeing.

"It's got to be her eyes." Bella nodded like she had figured it out. "She has puppy dog eyes."

Rosalie chuckled, "Yeah, that's got to be it."

"Okay," Esme ushered Bella out of Rosalie's room gently, and they moved across the hall. "This is Carlisle's office." Esme didn't open the door. His being a doctor was reason enough to not go in there, but Bella wondered if there was another.

They moved on to what Bella was told was "Alice's" room. Alice had her door opened as well and was sitting at what was clearly her makeup table, but she had a laptop in front of her. "I'm looking at sales." She seemed to make a grimace at that.

"Before we go, I'll show you what I have already." Bella told her, thinking that it would make it easier for Alice to help her shop.

"You don't have much at all do you?" Alice said after a moment of slightly odd silence.

"Alice." Esme scolded, and Bella smirked at the two vampires. Was Esme even older than Alice? It was probably a close call.

"Oh, you are not going to last shopping with me, if that's your attitude missy." Bella teased and shook her head. "Don't worry, no one ever does."

"Well, we'll see." Alice teased back, pretending a gauntlet had been tossed. Alice's body relaxed from its fake tense pose and she smiled. "I have spare art supplies here." Alice pointed to a dresser in the corner, but the supplies must be inside it. "I could probably find everything you need to start that portfolio that we're working on now."

"Oh, you two have a class together?" Esme asked and she seemed pleased.

"We have two classes together." Bella added and noticed Esme nodding in approval.

"And Bella is in Biology with Emmett and Rosalie." Alice added.

Bella and Alice talked briefly about her day, and then Alice was standing up and close again. Bella blinked as the little vampire undid the tied on scarf gently. "Before I forget." Alice muttered, her eyes focused intently on her work. Alice gently placed the scarf on her bed and smiled at her.

Esme continued the tour and seemed to be very pleased with the next room she was going to show her. "This is my office." Esme told her and opened the door. Before they could step inside, Emmett was at the top of the stairs.

"Remember, you came to play games with me." Emmett told Bella and glanced at the door. "You can sit around in Esme's office talking about carpet some other time."

"I'm just doing a tour today Emmett." Esme told him a little firmly, but when Bella's eyes drifted into the office she saw sample books and bookshelves with catalogs. She could see tile samples, and carpet samples. There was a paint color sample booklet on the table near the window, spread out as if Esme had been picking colors recently.

"She's drooling again." Emmett muttered and Bella found herself blushing. "It's like when Rose sees a new car with the hood up."

"If you'd like you could come over sometime this week and we can find that green color you wanted to paint your room." Esme spoke gently and Bella looked back over at her with a smile. They could design her bedroom here, Esme had everything. Bella could take the design and get things over the next few months as she could afford them, or even find some things on sale. Esme smiled at her reaction and rested hand on her shoulder for a moment. "We're just going to take a peek at my office Emmett, and then I'll give her back."

"You better give her back. I've got the cookies out and the game up and ready to go." He seemed to pout a little and Bella gave him an apologetic look, but she wanted into Esme's interior design office. She followed the brunette female into her lair happily, thinking about how she'd wished she'd had access to a place like this when she was buying her house, or trying to buy her house.

"Have you ever heard of a dresser desk?" Bella asked as she glanced over the catalogues.

"I can't say I have." Esme looked intrigued, so even though Emmett was waiting, increasingly impatiently, Bella explained.

"I saw it on HGTV. They took the top off a dresser, put one inside the casing of the body, and put a slide out shelf down, before putting the dresser top back." She grinned. "So right under the top of the dresser is a shelf that you pull out, just as wide as the top, and it can be used as a desk. I was thinking I need make something like that for my room. I don't have a lot of space, I need to make it work."

"Are you good with tools?" Esme asked her and Bella sighed.

"Not that good, and I don't know what Charlie has, but I'm going to try once I find a dresser that will work." She was determined to make something of her room, since she couldn't make something of a house.

"Let me know what you're looking for. Sometimes I run into deals." Esme offered and Bella was inclined to accept. She needed to look at the catalogues to show Esme what she was thinking, but Emmett had been waiting. "I'd love to see what you're thinking of, maybe I could help. I need a new project."

Bella smiled at her, feeling eager and happy. She'd never actually met an interior designer before, she'd always just did her best to take care of it herself, and to have Esme offer her help was amazing. The tour ended there, and Bella pretended to not notice they didn't see the third floor because Emmett wanted her, but she was sure there were other reasons. Hopefully Edward wasn't actually home.

Emmett was sitting on the floor by the tv, controller in hand, sighing heavily, when she got back to the main floor. "Now that all the females are done trying to steal you away, can we play?"

"Rosalie didn't try to steal me." Bella muttered, as she moved to sit down in front of the other laid out controller.

Emmett's smirk was wicked, "Why, did you want her too?"

"Ass." Was all she could say, her blush shaming her again. Apparently she hadn't hidden any of her responses to Rosalie. Luckily Emmett didn't seem anything but amused.

Mentally she begged him not to say anything else, because she knew everyone was listening. He just gave her a soft smile and started up the game. For a moment Bella thought she was off the hook. "Don't forget my mom's married." Emmett muttered just as the game was starting and Bella found her character killed by the first thing that came along.

"Restart." She growled at him, making him laugh.

He did restart the game, but right before it was going to start he opened his mouth again. "Don't go asking my sister to pose naked for your portfolio."

This time Bella managed to still dodge the enemy in the game, but she didn't manage to not blush. "I heard that men with big cars and big muscles were trying to compensate for something." She shot back verbally, while trying to figure out how to shoot at the enemy on the screen.

"Was that a request to see it?" Emmett asked.

"Does your father have a microscope here?" Bella asked him just as casually.

This time there was no missing the feminine chuckle and Bella glanced to the side to see Rosalie standing in the entryway watching them. There was a blast from the television and Bella looked back at the screen to see pieces of her character all over the terrain.

"Oh that's rich, Rose you have to stay and watch us play." Emmett gave Bella an evil grin and Bella sighed heavily and shook her head.

"Bella, my man is perfectly proportioned." Rosalie told her as Bella's character came back to life.

"I only have your word on that." Bella teased, but she kept her eyes off of Rosalie and on the tv screen. She could hear Rosalie settling down on the couch behind them though, and she soon heard the flipping of pages.

"I'm not going to let Emmett be the first man you see, you'd never fully appreciate him that way." Rosalie teased her just as a battle started on the screen and Bella found herself scrambling to try and get to safety as she was startled by the cheating.

"Assuming a lot aren't you?" Bella muttered as she shot at the hordes rushing toward her character.

"Have you seen a man, Bella?" Rosalie's teasing voice was gone and it was a little harsh, a little concerned. The magazine sounded like it was wrinkled in that moment. Bella frowned and wished she could turn around for a moment to see Rosalie's expression.

She couldn't really admit to having seen much, because she was sixteen now and it was when she was older. She had never even imagined seeing as much dick as she did at her one and only college party, where when she wasn't looking it turned into an impromptu male revue, and she heard later, because she left, a bit of an orgy. Apparently the men did not lose the bet after all. "I did have the internet." She tried to play it offhand, and smiled a little, but she didn't miss that Emmett glanced sideways at her. "I miss it so." She grinned evilly at him.

"Don't be in too much of a hurry to grow up Bella." Rosalie spoke quietly and Bella said nothing in return. There was a lot more to those words than a teenager would hear, and she didn't want to shrug them off. Rosalie was concerned, and it was touching. She knew what Rosalie meant, but as she really was a born again virgin, she shouldn't know.

After a moment, Bella did whisper. "I'm not dating this year at all." It was her reassurance to Charlie. She could hear Rosalie settle back into the couch and pick up another magazine.

"Good."

Emmett spoke up, of course. "You'll have to work on that resolution Bella Bear, because you have a bit of a following at school already."

"Nothing tempting though." She made a bit of a face, and Emmett laughed.

They slowly got into a comfortable groove and Bella was learning to play the game. It slowly became possible to not be too distracted by the fact that Rosalie was watching and making comments about her magazine once in a while.

A sound of disgust reached her from behind her and to the side of her and Bella was a bit confused, but when ten minutes later she started to smell dinner cooking she realized she was up for a performance just as much as they were. Blind and stupid, she reminded herself, as she played on with the game.

"Bella, you did tell Charlie you were staying for dinner didn't you?" Esme asked as they reached another level, so there was time to look away from the tv.

"Emmett told me I better." She smiled at the woman. "It smells great too. Did you need help?" She put the controller down and wiggled her fingers a little. This was too much gaming all at once.

"Oh, I've got it." Esme told her. "It won't be much longer."

"Great, I'm starving." Emmett managed to say, but if you were listening you could hear some sarcasm.

Bella excused herself to go to the bathroom before the game could get going again. She did notice a few eyes watching her hands as she tried to stretch them out as she walked away.

Dinner was around the dining room table. Esme had made enough to put food on everyone's plate. Carlisle was missing the production because he was working late, but they placed Bella in the middle of the table. Five minutes into dinner, Bella understood why, and worked to help their scheme work.

Alice sat at one side of the table and Esme on the other. It turned out to be strategic, because when Bella looked over to talk to Alice, when Alice started a conversation, the vampires she wasn't facing spent time hiding food. After a few moments Esme would break into the discussion and then the other side of the table was hiding food. Others worked their way into that scheme, to keep things moving, even Jasper.

Bella gave all of her attention to the people talking, absolutely all of it, but she also kept eating, so that it wouldn't be dragged out too long. Poor Esme wasn't probably as used to pretending to eat as the others.

"You seem happy." Jasper said at one point near the end of the meal.

"This is nothing like the dinners I have with Charlie or Renee. I like it." Bella managed with a straight face, but she knew her amusement was easy for him to read. She should probably give him something to think it was. "Renee spends meals talking about when I was little, and I get bored of that fast. Charlie talks for maybe three sentences and then it's all about the food." She shrugged. "This is nice." A few vampires smiled at her when she said that, and Bella focused on her food for a little bit to try and catch up to those who had hidden their food faster than others.

….


	14. Chapter 14

** Emmett PoV**

He helped Bella up into the Jeep, because after watching her getting into it at school, he became aware that she was small and couldn't leap up like a vampire. He'd never had a human in his Jeep before and he didn't want her getting hurt getting in or out.

"I had a lot of fun." Bella told him as he started the car and that had Emmett smiling. This had been epic, he'd brought home a human friend and everyone loved her. Well, Edward wasn't there, but he was a bit of a dick about her anyhow.

"Me too." He was going to miss being able to have her over all the time after Edward got back, and he didn't have a good excuse to give her about that yet. "I kicked your butt though, you know it."

"I know." She smiled and shook her head. "But in my defense, I've never played those games."

"No excuse." He grinned and ignored the fact that Jasper was yelling at him that even the human would beat him given a little training. Thankfully the human couldn't hear him.

Driving her home was fast, and he waved to the window when he noticed Bella's dad looking out the window, before walking around the Jeep to help Bella get out. "I don't know how I feel about sharing you with my family. Now we can't hang out for a few days because you have plans with Alice and Esme."

"Don't worry, you're my first friend. I won't forget about you." Bella rested her hot hand on his for a moment, before moving to close the Jeep door. "We'll figure out something to do on Spring Break." She promised even as she made her way toward her front door.

"Your friend is looking a little friendly Bells." He could hear Charlie's voice from inside the house, and liked the nickname Bells.

"His girlfriend told him I might fall out of the Jeep if he didn't help me." Bella Bear said, and Emmett grinned at hearing the little liar, before starting his Jeep up again. He was a gentleman all on his own, thank you very much. Little Bella didn't want Papa Bear to think they were dating. It was almost worth it to tease the hell out of her, but Rosalie might decide to punish him for that game.

By the time he got back to the house, he expected everyone to be in the main room. It didn't take long to discover that Jasper and Alice were missing. When he opened the front door and slipped into the main room he didn't even wait to see the others before asking. "Where'd Jasper and Alice go?" He had wanted to gloat a little about his Bella Bear and how he'd picked a great human BFF, but so many people were missing.

"They went hunting, and then Jasper agreed to deliver the scarf with Bella's scent to Edward." Esme was sitting at the piano, facing the room, as if trying to evaluate the decorating again. "Alice said she had a vision that Edward would take the news that Bella moved here a little better if Jasper told him about it and showed him how we feel about the girl."

"A little better meaning he'll pitch a diva fit and still yell and scream, but he won't even think of hurting my Bella Bear, right?" Emmett spoke slowly, his smile wiped away. Living with Edward when he was on one of his depressions about being a monster was never fun, but if he actually went after Bella Emmett would have to stop him and then Bella would see two vampires wrestling. That was not a good thing at all.

Esme usually defended Edward's diva fits, but this time she just agreed. Not long after Esme made her way back up to her office, and Emmett thought she heard her mutter something about 'dresser desks'. It made him smile. After so many years with just this family, or occasionally the Denalis, it was nice to have someone new around, and apparently most of the people around here appreciated it.

"Alice doesn't think that Edward will scare Bella away." Rosalie told him quietly as he sat down beside her and tugged her a little so she was leaning up against him while she read. "I don't want him to scare her at all." Emmett hugged her to him and kissed her head.

"She likes you too Rose, even a little bit much." Emmett teased softly, and got a light slap on his leg for it.

"Don't tease her so much about that." Rosalie sounded fond of her. "It's got to be confusing for the girl, and she's trying so hard not to stare."

"And you're helping her by not giving her soft little smiles." Emmett teased his wife. She scowled a lot at school to keep the boys away, but she wasn't scowling at Emmett's Bella Bear.

"Well, she is trying not to stare. I can't let her get away with that." Rose joked back.

…

Bella packed a lunch today, and it was sitting on the counter waiting for them to leave for school. She decided, when she woke up, that she just did not want to deal with teenagers today. Since she couldn't sit with the Cullen's she planned to get a little work done in the library during lunch.

"So schools good right?" Charlie asked her while finishing up his breakfast.

"Better than ever." She smiled. "I have friends in three of my classes." It made taking high school over again a bit more bearable. "Oh, and Alice begged me to go shopping with her." She gave Charlie a little bit of an evil smile.

"Oh, be gentle on her Bells." He said, but Bella thought she could see some relief in him that he didn't have to take her. "When you two going?"

"I told her Wednesday." Bella sighed. She would have preferred to do it today, but she needed to get homework to a level that she could afford another fun day. "I have to catch up with classes."

"Yeah, moving in the middle of a semester can't be fun." Charlie's voice was more serious, and Bella could see his jaw clench a little. "Lot of extra work I bet."

"Nothing I can't handle." Bella reassured him, but if things weren't going so well with the Cullens she'd be pretty irritated today with her work load. Luckily she was fast at high school homework, but she didn't like actually having to take it home to do.

"I thought you were going to take Emmett's girlfriend shopping with you." Charlie asked, and something in his eyes made it a more serious question.

Bella sighed. "She isn't as into shopping as Alice." Her eyes traveled to the window and the car they needed to be getting into soon. "I'm not sure what we have in common yet. She's really into cars, but I just know how to drive them, she's a mechanic."

"Wouldn't hurt to have a friendly mechanic when you get a car Bells." Charlie smiled at her, but she could still see some tension in his eyes.

"Well, that's a little ways off." Bella sighed. "I'll figure something out." Something that helped Bella not stare at the blonde vampire would be nice. She didn't want to seem like a creep. Perhaps movies? But that was too much like dating, asking Rosalie to a movie. Bella did want to have some connection to Rosalie too, since she had games with Emmett, and shopping with Alice, and interior design with Esme.

As Charlie was driving her, and why he always chose to do this while driving, she didn't know. "Any boys you're interested in at school Bells?"

"God no." She said while staring out the side window. Charlie didn't seem to know what to say to that response.

Bella got out of the patrol car right in front of the school, and she could tell people noticed her there. She didn't let the attention bother her, since she was going to have to get used to this or walk. When Alice sidled up to her on her way to English, those looks were for walking with a Cullen, Bella was pretty sure, but Alice was worth the odd stares.

"The Great Gatsby" The teacher started the class and Bella sighed and turned her attention to the front of the class. She'd rather continue to talk about art class with Alice, but no, it was time to talk about a 'Great American Novel.'

It took work to bite her tongue as the class started to discuss the themes of love in that novel. Love didn't exist in that novel, more than any other novel Bella had ever read. She could see the teacher steering the conversation, trying to pull out the connections between love and money in the book. Bella hated this book, but she'd read it before and she'd reviewed the thing yesterday.

"Bella, what do you think?" The teacher asked, making the sad novel Bella's problem. Bella noticed that yet again she had more heads swiveling to see her than the others in the back row had.

Bella knew the teacher wanted someone to say that it was the love of money that was the problem, the materialism of the 1920's. Bella agreed with that much as well, but she sighed and looked the teacher in the eye, fully aware of the vampire sitting next to her that was from the time period in question and in her shopping addiction was a little bit too connected to this book in Bella's opinion. In fact Alice was dressed in beyond average finery now. "The author showed that every relationship was based on money, not love, but in a time when women were just being allowed the right to vote, and it was probably met with some violence in some houses, in a time when women were suddenly realized to be people too, people with a brain, how much respect was in any of the relationships of the time?" She wanted to stop there, but the teacher was starting to smile and motioned for her to continue.

"When a group of people have all the positives, power of any kind, money, the right to give their opinion, and the ability to ignore another groups opinions because they don't have the same powers and can't even hope to get anything like it unless they ally themselves with the people who aren't respecting them, well, is it any surprise the relationships aren't working?"

"That is a good point Bella." The teacher finally moved on and Bella let out a deep breath.

"When did you have time to read the book?" Alice whispered.

"I read it before." Bella told her quietly.

"No wonder you were so disappointed that it was in this class, you had it already this year." Alice smiled at her and Bella couldn't correct her. She did notice that Alice was giving her measuring looks for a little while after Bella spoke up in class.

Bella was more comfortable with the class after that though, in spite of Alice's eyes on her, because she'd turned the conversation to respect and not the 1920's materialism that was alive and well today, in the girl next to her. She didn't want people talking badly of Alice, even abstractly like this.

That being said, maybe she'd point it out to Alice, that she's a bit of a Gatsby if Alice went too crazy shopping. She'd do it gently of course.

Many students were zoning out in this discussion, so Alice's blank expression wasn't odd here, but the brief glare Bella got before Alice covered it up was enough to remind Bella to refrain from making decisions about what to tell Alice. It was the same as telling Alice.

Alice was just a little distant for the remainder of the class, but she did smile at Bella when they split up, so hopefully her feelings weren't too hurt. Bella couldn't even apologize because she didn't say it.

While she was in her History class, Bella focused hard on deciding to ask Alice what all she did for fun, to tell her she wanted to spend more time with her, but shopping wasn't something she did often, because she just didn't replace things until they really needed it. Bella decided to tell Alice she liked her and wanted to be her friend. It was the best non-verbal apology she could give the psychic and keep her own secrets.

She went to her next few classes and did as much work as she could while in them, but in Algebra that proved very hard to do. Jessica wouldn't stop with the questions, even when Bella didn't answer them.

"Look, I just met you yesterday." Bella whispered back to Jessica, finally unable to ignore her anymore. "I don't know why an hour in class and a lunch together makes you think you're entitled to my life story, but you aren't." She could see Jessica's face start to redden. "I don't know you, you're not my best friend, but even if you were, you shouldn't interrogate a friend like this. It alienates people." There was no way she was invited to sit at Jessica's lunch table again, but Bella didn't care. "Wait for people to offer to tell you things, maybe then they wouldn't want to avoid you."

Once class got out Jessica dragged Mike away, sending Bella a glare as she did it. Bella just smirked and turned to walk up to the teacher in the front of the class. "I don't know if you ever do this, but Jessica won't shut up during your lectures, even when I ask nicely and I can't concentrate. Can you move me?"

The teacher looked a little surprised. "See me before the next class and I'll see what I can do."

"Um Mike Newton is stalking me and doesn't understand English when I tell him I won't date him. If I have to choose between Jessica and him, I'll stay where I am." Bella grimaced and the teacher's nod showed she was understood, before Bella turned to make it toward art class.

Even behind schedule, because she had waited for all the students to leave the room before talking to the teacher, Alice slid up next to her halfway to the art class. It was almost startling when the little vampire latched on to Bella's arm again and smiled up at her radiantly. "So, ready for art?" All was clearly forgiven.

When it was time to draw your partner, Alice draped another scarf over Bella's neck, tucking it into her shirt just a little. "Makes it more challenging." Alice told her but it was like Bella suddenly got it. Someone needed to practice with her scent to be okay around her. That was what the sneaky little vampire was up to with these scarves. Bella blushed a little as she considered that with the way Alice sniffed at her once in a while, perhaps Alice just wanted her scarves to smell like Bella. Alice 'forgot' to take the scarf back after class, and Bella found herself choosing to wear it until someone took it back from her, just in case they actually needed her scent like that. She tucked it into her shirt a bit more, to get more skin contact.

Bella snuck off after art to eat in the library and work, but she go so into her assignment, and trying to catch up, that it was the bell that had her looking up and realizing she had to rush to Biology. The teacher gave her a hard look, and since she had to walk passed the teacher desk she whispered to him on her way by. "I'm sorry, I was in the library working on my homework and didn't notice the time."

"Don't make it a habit." He told her and Bella nodded, but she didn't like that this one teacher, once again, thought she was a flake. When Emmett chuckled as she sat down, she whispered one word.

"Ass."

It was lab day and the table was set up for it. "You weren't at lunch." Rosalie's voice was softer and she moved so that she could see Bella around Emmett. "Oh, this isn't going to work, trade seats with me." She tugged on his arm and Bella lost her huge male shield as Rosalie moved to sit beside her as the teacher was handing out some more supplies.

"Why weren't you at lunch?" Rosalie asked once she'd settled down. Bella was watching her expression, and the concern was obvious. It was also hard to not pay attention to how Rosalie's yellow eyes bore into her.

"I wasn't in the mood to deal with it." Bella whispered, and then nodded to the teacher when he dropped off some supplies, grateful for something to pull her away from staring into Rosalie's eyes so much she was sure it was creepy. Her eyes stayed on the supplies as she organized them and slide them over to Rosalie. "And I'm trying to get caught up. Anything to shorten my marathon of homework tonight."

"So you aren't avoiding Mike?" She asked, her voice deepening just a little.

Bella smiled just a little and had to look back at the vampire in the seat next to her. "I'll deal with him if he continues to be a problem. I just wasn't in the mood today to deal with teenage drama."

"Okay class, the instructions for the lab are on page 128 of your lab book, that's lab book." The instructor spoke up and Bella moved to pull her book out of the backpack, when a cool white hand rested on hers for a moment.

She looked up to see Rosalie shaking her head gently. "We'll just use my book. I can share."

They started up the lab and struggled a little with how to work as a trio, when obviously the couple was used to just working with each other. They took a little longer than some of the other students, but they weren't the last done with the lab.

The real victory was that Bella didn't stammer or stutter, when talking with Rosalie. It was hard, she had to think harder about what she said and where she looked, but she left that class feeling a little bit better about her ability to treat Rosalie like a normal person. She was the hardest vampire to treat that way.

…..


	15. Chapter 15

It was tempting to just throw on her clothes and leave, but a small car with a small vampire for who knew how long to get to the mall? Bella sighed and made herself take that cool shower she hated. It wouldn't be so bad if she could turn the temperature up, but she couldn't.

Alice wanted to do the tour of Bella's closet quickly, so they could get to work. Alice drove today, and was waiting for her. Bella tugged her brush through her hair a bit haphazardly after the shower and made her way out the building.

"Hey," A boy spoke and Bella didn't slow down as she saw Mike coming up beside her. She'd gotten a free pass yesterday, so apparently he was back today. "I know you said you were busy, but you need to eat regardless." Bella turned cold eyes to him and stopped. She was at the corner of the parking lot, and she could see Alice's borrowed BMW in the distance.

"Mike, I told you I wasn't interested in dating you." Bella sighed heavily and started to turn to leave, but he reached out and grabbed her arm. She was forced to turn and glare at him.

"Just give me a chance. I'm worth it." He smiled, but his grip was a little too tight and Bella felt a palpable threat in being restrained.

He leaned in, actually leaned in and Bella moved forward just a little, surprising him. "You're persistent." She told him flatly and when he started to smile she spoke more coldly, "That isn't a good thing. Perhaps when you were a child this was cute, but you're older now and this is bordering on harassment and I want to make it very clear to you that I am not interested in you. Even when I decide I am settled and ready to date, it will never be with you. You are looking to sink your tiny little dick into any woman available. Try Jessica, she wants meaningless, awful sex, as badly as you do. I could do without it." She tugged on her arm, and this time he let go. "If I bruise I'm reporting you to the school." She told him and watched him pale a little.

"What do you mean?" His voice squeaked a little.

"Nearly deserted parking lot," She waved her arm around her to illustrate that most of the cars were gone. "Me, alone and you grabbing me and not letting go. Sounds bad doesn't it?" She stared into his eyes. That child was just now getting it. "It was bad Mike, you don't do that to a woman. Never. Do you understand? Even if you weren't meaning it that way, you shouldn't ever make a woman think that about you."

"I wasn't going to," He managed before swallowing hard.

"You leave me alone, never bother me again." She told him and turned to walk away. He didn't follow.

Alice got out of the BMW and stood beside it, her smile missing, as she stared at Mike. As Bella got closer she saw Alice's eyes were black, she looked back to see Mike looking truly frightened by the entire thing. "Let's get out of here." Bella managed as she moved to the passenger side.

"Are you okay?" Alice asked as Bella was opening the door.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Bella shook her head. "I don't think he'll bother me again."

Alice was quiet just a little too long. "No, I don't think he will." Alice slammed the car door and started it up.

"I'll have Charlie make a big display about dropping me off tomorrow, that should finish Mike off. Once I remind him I'm the sheriff's daughter I think he'll actually be running from me." Bella was trying to ease the tension in the car.

"He scared you, if Charlie isn't enough to make him stay far away, we'll definitely be telling Emmett." Alice's voice held a bit of a growl. Bella felt her heart beat a bit faster when it dawned on her that she was in a car with an angry vampire.

"I don't think we'll need to go that far. He's just a stupid boy who just suddenly realized what was okay for little boys isn't okay for him anymore." Bella spoke firmly and calmly, while damning her heart for beating faster. She had to cover that. "If you aren't okay to drive, I could." Bella glanced out the windshield at the road.

"No, I'm good." Alice appeared to take a deep breath, as if she were calming herself down. Staged, practiced, Bella let herself relax as visibly as she could as well.

"First things first, my room is not done at all." Bella said as they got out of the car in front of her house. "I'm going to redo it bit by bit and it'll be pretty nice, not as nice as yours, but pretty nice."

"So don't judge you by your room. I got it." Alice finally gave a real looking smile. "Let's get the fashion show moving so we can do something about your clothes."

Alice followed Bella up the stairs, but Bella noticed that Alice was looking at all the pictures Charlie had on the wall. His daughter featured heavily in them. "Is it hard to see this?" Alice asked quietly. "To know who you were and just not be able to remember any of it?"

"Yeah, I feel really bad for him. That girl is gone." Bella whispered. "That isn't me. I don't look at the pictures and think of it as me at all." Bella spoke honestly. "I can't really think about it too much or I'll go crazy. It's just so weird. I just live for now, who I am now, what I want now, and I try not to dwell on what I've lost."

"I understand." Alice spoke so softly, and Bella knew she did to some extent, more than others, but there was a whole other level to this Bella couldn't tell Alice about.

"So my sad collection of clothes." Bella gently took Alice's hand and lead her to Bella's bedroom door. Bella wasn't normally so touchy and feely, but Alice was a bit too serious and that seemed wrong.

One look at Bella's nearly empty closet was enough to shock Alice back into acting like herself. "Oh my god, such a little closet and it's nearly empty?"

"My summer clothes aren't here yet." Bella crossed her arms in front of her and sighed heavily. "I'm sticking to clothes that go together as much as possible. I have jeans, black pants, and brown pants." She pointed them out.

"No skirts, no dresses." Alice waved at the closet.

"It's cold here, I don't want skirts and dresses. I like pants, they go with more things." Bella spoke more slowly. "I don't wear heels, I'm not overly girly." Alice turned to stare at her when she said that.

"You are beautiful, you could be a knockout with the right clothes and makeup." Alice sounded a bit upset, and Bella knew she would be.

"Well, if we can do it in pants and comfortable shoes, great. No dresses and skirts." Bella glanced at Alice. "Come on, I've only seen you a few times, but you manage to make pants look great, why is this so upsetting?"

"Well, it limits your choices." Alice told her as if that was obvious.

"Yes, to choices I'd actually make. I wouldn't choose a skirt." Bella sighed heavily. "I'd like to go shopping with you Alice, but if you think this will be too boring I could ask Charlie to take me this weekend."

"No no, I'm going with you." Alice gave her a small smile. "We'll be fine."

Bella remembered her 'plans' in History class and spoke more softly. "I like you and I want us to be friends. Maybe we could find other things to do too? Movies? I don't know."

"Sleep overs?" Alice asked quietly and Bella started to smile. That would be good.

"With movies." She added and Alice looked like she might start dancing at some point.

"And makeup." Alice added.

"I could do that." Bella saw Alice give her a radiant smile again. It made Alice look even more adorable. Bella almost wanted to suggest they do that sleepover this weekend, but she was going to wait for her to suggest it, so that she knew Alice had time to hunt beforehand.

They talked about what Bella wanted to buy as they made their way to the mall. Alice gave some suggestions that would make it a little harder, because the gift card was going to have to stretch further, but Alice was very good at illustrating the importance of accessories. That was one thing Bella never fully used, and so she'd made Alice's day by making the small vampire in charge of decent accessories.

When Alice went to park the car near the Nordstrom's Bella had to step in. "This store isn't even on the list to visit. We want to park on the other end of the mall." Bella smiled at Alice. "I'll show you how this is done. You've been shopping with a cheat code all this time, it's more challenging this way."

"You've been talking with Emmett too much." Alice smiled, which was what Bella had been going for.

They entered the mall at a much less expensive store and had to tug on Alice a little to get her to follow her to the clearance racks. If Alice didn't help her there wouldn't have been any way she could tug Alice anywhere, but the little vampire pretended to be pulled off course while laughing.

Once they got out of that first store, Alice proved she was a cheater, by 'zoning out' and then selecting stores for them to visit. Bella found amazing deals, but Alice was getting good accessories for almost nothing. Bella finally had to assign Alice to specific items, like a brown shirt, or a spring jacket, because she was getting the accessories pile too big.

There was a growl while they were looking at the map of the mall. "I could use some dinner too." Alice spoke a bit hesitantly, while glancing down at Bella's stomach. Bella blushed at the speculative look. "Should have thought of that sooner." She heard Alice apologize and chose to ignore it.

"Well, what are you in the mood for." Bella asked, glancing at the selection of fast food or full sit down restaurants. What would be easier for Alice to hide? It turned out finger foods that didn't require big bites to disappear out of them was the answer. Alice bought herself fries at the foodcourt.

In the end they were stopped by the last purchase, where Bella had to add five dollars to the last of the gift card. "And that is how it's done." Bella gave Alice as sexy a smirk as she could manage while taking the last bag from the cashier. She glanced meaningfully at the other bags Alice had been holding for her while she paid.

"This was actually fun." Alice sounded a little surprised.

"Yeah." Bella couldn't contain her smile. No one ever really liked shopping with her, but Alice even made it more fun for Bella. Her powers sure sped it up a bit, that was for sure. "But my curfew," she grimaced as she caught sight of a clock, "we better go." They still had to drive back to Forks.

She wasn't thrilled with having a curfew, but saying she had to be back home by 10 pm on a school night wasn't unreasonable at all. She showered at night, needed to wind down, 10 pm was actually later than she would have set it, if she'd thought about it herself. She really hated not getting enough sleep, and though it was getting a little easier to fall asleep she still took far longer than she'd like.

"If we want to do a sleep over, we'll need to do it soon." Alice said while quickly passing a car on the freeway. Bella turned in her seat to see Alice clearly in deep thought and hoped she wouldn't have a vision while driving. Was that why she didn't tend to drive as much in the books? Bella didn't really want to see the accident they'd have at this speed if Alice spaced out. "My brother Edward is coming back from visiting family in about a week and he wouldn't leave us alone. I can get Emmett to give us space, but Edward would ruin our fun." It was odd to hear Alice speak about Edward like the problem was he was a pesky little brother, when Bella was starting to think it wouldn't be safe at the Cullen house anymore once he was there.

"So Edward's going to be a problem?" Bella felt disconnected, but given her other response should be fear, perhaps that was better.

"Oh no," Alice spoke firmly. "We won't let him, but he isn't used to having to share us, we don't make a lot of friends, so he'll be a bit of a jerk for a while I'm sure. Just ignore him and he'll get better." Alice sighed. "We may have to spend more time at your house when he gets home. I don't want you to see the arguments."

Alice was painting a little bit of an ugly picture of Edward, which as his favorite sister was a surprise, but was it because he was going to be that ugly or was it to keep Bella from walking up to him? At this moment she wished she could just ask, but she couldn't. "So I was thinking, since we don't have school next week, maybe you could stay over Monday?" Alice was on about the sleep over now. "Rose and I will kick the boys out so they don't bother us, and definitely so Emmett doesn't try and steal you back, because this time you're visiting me." There was some possessiveness in her voice and Bella did her best to relax.

"Sure, I'll tell Charlie." Bella still had plans to visit Esme Friday, and to spend Saturday with Emmett. She felt a little odd about visiting there now though, but it was this week or nothing for a while at least. Maybe for a long time.

Damn Edward was coming back just as Bella was getting settled and finally feeling a little happy. Bella knew he wouldn't approve of the family hanging out with a human, he'd done that while dating one in the books after all. Bella took a deep breath and stared out the side window, her expression growing colder. He wasn't in charge of the entire family and Bella would avoid him, she was more than eager to avoid him, but she wasn't losing the few friends she'd already made.

She'd also have to monitor her thoughts when she was near him for a while, perhaps put out a few tests to see if he could hear her. If he did she'd have to be fast about trying to keep the Cullens from running away. At first, before she got to know them, she would have been fine with having Forks to herself, but she'd miss them, and they were the only people freakier than she was around here.

"What kind of movies do you like? We have a lot of them, but we could rent more if we need to." Alice was still talking about the sleep over.

After Alice dropped her off and she put her clothes away, Bella tried getting ready for bed and attempted to sleep. It took half the night to fall asleep, and she kept waking up. Finally she just sat up in bed and looked at the window. She'd have to figure out how, but she was blocking that window. She didn't want any creepy vampire thinking he could just slip the lock and stare at her all night, perhaps fantasize about killing her, all in the name of getting used to her scent. It was wrong, disturbed even, that Edward did that in the books and this Bella wasn't going to put up with it. She'd send over as many scarves and clothes as the Cullens needed but she wasn't going to lose what little sleep she was able to manage when he came to town waiting for the creeper to try and come in. No, she'd at least prevent that much.

She dragged herself through the next day, and when she went to have lunch in the library and study, this time she found she wasn't alone. Bella looked up from her textbook to see Rosalie sliding into the seat across from her. "I heard how things went with Mike." There was a hiss to his name. Bella blinked as the arm she had on the table was gently pulled toward Rosalie and the blonde lifted the sleeve to check her skin. "At least he didn't bruise you." Rosalie muttered, before looking up. "He won't bother you again. I have Emmett talking to him."

"I thought I'd taken care of it." Bella said, but she was hyper aware of the fact that Rosalie was holding the hand of the arm she'd just inspected. Mike had kept his distance today in the halls and in class he didn't even look at her.

"And we're making sure it's taken care of for good." Rosalie finally let go, and Bella slowly slide her arm back toward her body. "You look like you couldn't sleep and I want you to know you have nothing to fear from that worm."

"Oh, well, thanks." Bella stammered, but while she was touched, it wasn't Mike that kept her up at night worrying.

Rosalie smiled, "Alice told me that we're having a sleep over on Monday. I'm looking forward to it." Bella's eyes widened and she struggled with her shock. "Emmett is upset he isn't invited, so I expect he will hog you all day Saturday." Bella didn't remember hearing that Rosalie was invited.

"I hope we can agree on some movies." Bella felt lame saying that, but she didn't know what to say. She had to try and find something to talk to Rosalie about, because they were going to spend hours together.

"I'm sure we'll find something, but don't expect too many movies. Alice has already started to go through her makeup to try and find shades that would look on you."

"Okay, but I'm not sitting still for hours on end." Bella watched Rosalie stand up.

"Class starts in five minutes. I'll walk you."

…


	16. Chapter 16

The next day Bella felt a little more alert. She'd managed to sleep the night before. That was good, because she was getting to play in Esme's office with her today and she was looking forward to that. Bella had even taken measurements of her room, created a little map of where the light switch, window, power outlets, everything were. The map sat in her binder waiting for when Emmett got her to the house.

"I can't believe my best friend is hanging out with my mom today, instead of me." Emmett pouted and they were far enough from the house that Bella suspected Esme wasn't going to hear his whining.

"Well, she is hotter." Bella managed to say with a straight face, and watched him whip his head around to stare at her. She couldn't hold it and had to grin. Sometimes he made her actually feel like a teenager inside and she almost regretted her teasing for a moment, but his expression was priceless. He turned onto his long driveway with a pout on his face.

"Burn, burn." Emmett scolded her, as if that one word was enough. "I'm downright sexy!" Bella was a bit surprised the complaint was that he wasn't as hot as his mom, not that his mom was hot. After a second of thinking about it, it made more sense that he'd think that way.

"Right," She drew the word out. "You're downright sexy pouting like a three year old." She rolled her eyes and his pout disappeared instantly. Bella had to try not to laugh as he started trying to give her smoldering sexy looks.

"Do you need to go to the bathroom? Can you make it or should you pull over here?" Bella was trying to keep a straight face, but it was hard. He frowned for a moment and turned to watch where he was going, but he turned back to her with the 'smolder sexy' turned up a notch. "Jock itch? Constipation?" Bella was having a hell of a lot of fun, and her straight face was melting into a smile, she couldn't stop it. He attempted a sexy cat purr, and she chuckled. "Does your pussy need petting?" She couldn't even finish saying it before she burst out laughing.

"Oh my god." He cracked up as well. "I can't believe you said that." He pulled up next to the house and through his Jeep into park. "You need tutoring in biology if you think I have a,"

His door was whipped opened and Bella saw Esme giving Emmett a somewhat dark look, before turning to Bella. "You're here." She sounded pleased, but Bella didn't miss that Emmett looked scolded when Esme turned her head just a little so Bella couldn't see her lips. Talking, she was sure. Bella felt amused that it was Emmett getting into trouble, because she was the one that got nasty. Sometimes it worked, them having to act like they didn't hear some things, Esme couldn't very well scold her.

"Bella, I have a dresser that might work. It's broken, but if we're pulling the top off of it, we could replace it as easily as putting it back on, couldn't we?" Esme's eyes seemed to sparkle in excitement.

Bella went to get out of the Jeep and Esme was by her side this time, holding her arm to help steady her as she got down. Emmett couldn't have made it in time for how fast Bella was trying to get out and see if Esme really did solve her dresser issue, not at a human pace. She left her bag in Emmett's jeep, but she did pocket her drawing of her room. Instead of heading to Esme's office right away, they made their way to the garage. Apparently Esme took the dresser out there, in case they did want to work on it.

"Thank you Emmett for taking me to play with someone else!" Emmett yelled out, as if to tell her what she should be saying.

"Thanks Emmett, now go away so the adults can talk." She yelled back and gave Esme a small grin. Even at her real age, in her real body, she was the youngest person here. She didn't even look back at him before she yelled out, "And stop pouting."

Esme was chuckling by that point.

The dresser was not perfect, but it could be. "Do you think this can be taken off?" She asked Esme as she studied the traditional touches on the drawers.

"I don't think it would be that hard." Esme knelt down beside her in front of the dresser. "I think it's molding, we could chisel it off and repair the gouges. If you go with painting it, rather than re-staining it, we could use wood putty to fill and make it look new again pretty easily."

"How much do you want?" Bella asked and Esme just shook her head with a smile. Free, free made it even more attractive.

Bella tugged a drawer open just a bit and it worked pretty well. The obvious problem with it was the large chunk of the dresser top that was missing, an entire corner. "You thinking painted base and light stained wood top?" Bella asked, as the idea started to grow on her.

"Actually, I was thinking white base with medium tone wood for the top, Alice told me what your hardwood floor was like and we might want to take that into consideration." Esme offered up the idea and Bella studied the dresser, trying to envision the changes.

"New hardware." Bella started to smile, seeing it in her mind. "This would be really nice, and it's long too. It could be on that one wall all by itself, and I think I might even end up with some empty drawers after my stuff gets here."

"Not if Alice hears you say that." Esme smiled, but then her voice softened, "So you like it?", and there was a hint of insecurity in it that had Bella's full attention.

"It's perfect. Thank you. We could remake it together, I mean you'll help me right?" Bella watched the brunette vampire smile, clearly very pleased. It felt a little awkward, accepting things from Esme when she barely knew her, but it was clearly broken. They would have dumped it, Bella had no idea why they hadn't yet, but it was perfect. A bit of work and she'd have her dresser/desk. She remembered Esme asking about helping, and thought maybe the vampire got bored. It would be nice to have help on this project, because Bella wasn't really sure what she was doing. Not to mention if she did this at Charlie's she'd end up having to clean out the garage first, to make space to work, and he probably didn't have many tools.

They talked a little more about what they'd need to do, and then Esme suggested they go to her office to work on other aspects of the design, and to pick out a stain color for the new top they'd have to get, along with the slide out desk.

…

Esme POV

Esme smiled at Bella's back as they made their way to the house. The girl was adorable. The way she studied the dresser reminded Esme of Rosalie looking over a new car she was considering buying.

Rosalie's broken dresser had not made it into the trash last time. Those two broke furniture often, but for a first time Esme was glad to have some broken furniture. Alice explained how Bella was with money and how she didn't have much, but that she probably wanted that dresser more than the new clothes she'd just gotten. Esme had also been touched by how Bella was self-conscious about her room, more so than her closet, when Alice visited. It was nice to have something to offer.

"I have an after school snack in the office." Esme told Bella as she opened the door. The girl gave her a small smile in return and a thanks. It was cute how obviously Bella wanted to see Esme's office, and Esme felt a bit of pride in it.

They spent some time selecting the green Bella would want on her walls, and a small area rug to cover her wood floor next to the bed. They laid out some furniture on the map Bella created. "Are you thinking about becoming an interior designer?" Esme asked as she looked at the work Bella had already done.

"I can't." The girl spoke, while studying the various wood stains they could use for the dresser top. Esme frowned at Bella's words, because it was obviously the girl's passion.

"Why not?" She asked and she was watching Bella now, and not the stains they were picking between.

"I need to make money." Bella looked up. "I'm going to have to be able to take care of myself, and I can't go into art fields, they aren't reliable." And it was sad, so sad, to Esme that Bella would ignore her passion for money like that. Esme decided then and there that she'd have to try and persuade Bella that following her passion was never wrong. Especially since the girl was proving to already know so much about design. She must have woken up from her accident and immediately started watching design shows; or the girl that forgot everything, didn't forget design, either way that was passion.

They played with various elements, stains, fabrics, pictures of nightstands and headboards and created a shopping list for redoing Bella's room. Esme added that Bella should consider getting a slightly bigger bed, because the scale was wrong for the room, but Bella really balked at the idea of spending that kind of money. What was different about this job, that Esme had not had with other jobs was that once the plan was done Bella started to prioritize it, because she couldn't afford to do it all now, and was talking about needing a job before she spent money on more than the dresser/desk at all. It was a little frustrating to create a plan and not get to see to its creation right away. It was more frustrating, because this girl deserved a space of her own more than most, she'd been through so much, and she wasn't even considering asking her father for help with this.

"Did you want to stay for dinner?" Esme offered once the work was done, and Bella seemed to take a long time deciding even that. Esme could hear a few groans through the house at the thought of another pretend meal in the house, but Esme ignored it. Jasper told her that they were going out and Emmett quickly copied him. "It will just be the two of us, I'm afraid. Apparently it is date night." Esme felt a little bitter about the quick abandon ship her family pulled.

"Emmett was going to take me home." Bella sounded a little concerned.

"I'll take you dear." Esme offered and gave the girl a reassuring smile.

"Well, okay." Bella gave Esme a small hint of a smile in return and Esme felt a thrill of accomplishment. Humans rarely agreed to be around them, and none of them had spent much time one on one with a human before, other than Carlisle in his job, but humans in the ER were pretty well forced to be there. In fact Carlisle had tried private practice once and found that unless his patients were in an emergency, they were not comfortable with him.

The fact that Bella was making friends with so many vampires, was alone with them and also alone in a house full of them was amazing. Her instincts should be sending warnings to her constantly, but Esme didn't think they were, or if they were, the girl didn't know how to interpret them at all. It was why Alice, Emmett, and Esme all coveted her so. Even Rosalie was starting to seek time with their human. Life got a little boring when you spent time with the same people all the time, never anything new. Esme envied the kids for at least having school, but even they got restless, and it wasn't like they made friends there, not until now.

Bella's scent was a drawback in this, but Esme was willing to deal with the burn in her throat at times to have someone to share her own passion for design with.

As she dished up two plates, Esme felt some apprehension. She didn't have the kids to help distract Bella and Bella tended to really concentrate when talking with them during dinner. Esme really didn't want to have to eat.

"Do you get HGTV?" Bella asked as Esme was studying her plate and Esme looked up at the girl. "I mean, we could watch TV and eat maybe? It is just the two of us."

"That sounds like a lovely idea." Esme latched onto it with both hands, and she tried to keep her smile from being too wide. Esme made sure to covertly take the dishrag with her as well, because she'd need to hide this food somewhere. "Perhaps we can see more examples that you might consider."

"That's what I was thinking." Bella gave Esme a sly smile. "And I don't have to be home until later, so maybe we could start on the dresser? We could at least take it apart. I need to get to the store for some paint and supplies."

"Let me do that dear." Esme quickly offered, while carrying her plate with her into the main room. "You'll be busy with Emmett tomorrow, and I have to go into town anyhow." Perhaps Esme might 'forget' to ask for the money back too.

"Are you sure?" Bella settled onto the couch and Esme found the remote, to turn it to the right channel. In just a moment Esme watched as Bella's eyes moved to the tv. It was adorable, how her eyes widened and her focus was mostly on the tv for the half hour they were having dinner. Esme didn't even have to hide what she was doing. A human could have faked eating and gotten away with it, the way Bella always focused so hard on whatever she was doing at the time.

They slipped out and Esme took the human girl back to the garage. The lights were good in there, and there was lots of tools and space to work. Rosalie demanded a well-stocked garage for her cars, and with the way the kids broke things Esme had enough tools for the house that there was no problem finding a way to remove the dresser top or the décor on the drawers.

As they slowly and carefully each worked on a dresser drawer, Esme made sure to move at the same speed Bella did. She could have had the job done in a lot less time otherwise. It wasn't irritating though, because Esme was able to share stories about some of the rooms she'd designed over the years and Bella appreciated those stories and asked questions. It was really nice.

"Have you talked to your mother since you left?" Esme asked after they grabbed a new drawer a piece.

"No, I'm not sure I'll hear from her until something interesting happens in her life." Bella sighed and picked up the chisel, so she missed the dark look on Esme's face. The girl just moved in with her father, that she hardly knows, started a new school, is in a new state, and that woman didn't have the decency to call to see how she was. That Bella didn't even expect a call unless Renee had something to say was sad. Esme watched the girl chisel off the molding and felt an ache in her heart. If Renee couldn't get over herself enough to be the mother she'd been lucky enough to become, then Esme would steal the job from her. Esme could feel her eyes darkening, and she attempted to calm down a little, so she didn't accidently break Bella's furniture while trying to work on it.

Who could throw away a girl like Bella? Esme was just stunned that it had even happened.

….

The next morning Bella was cursing the fact that vampires didn't sleep, when she got up at the agreed upon hour, not getting to sleep in at all on her first day of Spring Break. What was the point of getting a break, a vacation, if you didn't sleep in?

They were starting off the day with video games, but Bella was going to have to be a bit obvious about her inability to hold a controller for hours on end, so that they took breaks, or perhaps even did something else for a while. After lunch time they were going to be doing something else, she'd make sure of that. She liked games just fine, but who needed to do more than three hours in a row of it? She had no idea what else Emmett might want to do, but she really did need to find more than one thing to do with him.


	17. Chapter 17

Bella had finished packing for the sleep over in the morning and the bag sat on the end of her bed, but she had free time to kill, because Alice wasn't picking her up until after dinner. It was actually clever of Alice, a way to get out of a real meal with her, and Bella was fine with that.

Bella slept in as much as she could, which after Charlie finally left the house for work and stopped making noise worked better. Alice wanted a real sleep over, and from what Bella knew about those there wasn't much sleep involved. It was important to stock up for a long night.

She'd spent a few hours working on homework and felt like she was finally up to date, other than the art portfolio, but she couldn't expect to whip that out quickly. She was pacing herself for that class and it wasn't something the teacher expected her to catch up on, just keep up on. Her portfolio wasn't required to be as big as the other students, since she missed half the semester. She might try to complete it anyhow, because the other classes weren't much of a challenge, other than math, and it was starting to get monotonous retaking these classes. Art was new.

With homework finally as it should be, Bella had time to just relax again. Her Anita Blake book was getting good. Bella had been buying those regularly ever since she'd read the first one in December. It was a long series, and it had surprised her by how hot it had gotten over time. Without the internet, Bella may end up having to find other books to read and she was starting to consider the Mercy Thompson series as well, since the same writer might have the same heat. It was a nice substitution for her missed internet browsing. Bella glanced up to make sure she did have the next book in the series as she stretched her neck out. She'd been reading for hours. Her one bookshelf, and that wasn't going to be enough long term, was filled with this series and one or two other unrelated books. Normally she used the library, but if the thought the book was good enough she bought it, because she would re-read it.

"Bells?" Charlie's voice called up even as he was opening the door. Apparently it was almost dinner time.

"Yeah, I'm up here!" She called back and got up, setting her book back down on the bed, open to her page.

"I got Chinese." He sounded pleased and Bella just shook her head. Chinese sounded good, and he wasn't expecting her to cook, but those cooking lessons for him were going to have to start soon. Bella was willing to cook dinner half the time, it seemed fair, but he shouldn't fill the other half with take out. Maybe Bella would have time to look over a cook book or something this week and find a couple easy recipes to try and teach Charlie.

It was no shock that Alice's timing was perfect. As soon as they were done with dinner and Charlie took control of washing the dishes, there was a knock on the door.

"I got it." Bella told him and opened the door to a beaming Alice standing on there. Alice looked really happy, and just that made Bella smile at her.

"Are you ready?" Bella moved out of the way so Alice could come in.

"Hello Chief Swan, nice to meet you." Alice spoke over Bella's shoulder and turned to see Charlie had moved to the kitchen doorway to see them.

"Charlie, this is Alice." Bella didn't even bother to hide her smirk at his slightly shocked expression, which he covered admirably a second later.

"Nice to meet you Alice. You kids have fun tonight." He nodded at them and then moved to return to the kitchen. That was a conversation with him; he didn't talk much unless he knew the people.

"Where is your stuff?" Alice turned to her.

"On my bed." Bella started for the stairs. She thought she'd just go get it, but Alice followed her up.

"What's this?" Alice took the book and flipped it over. Bella felt her heart sink just a little as the playful joy in Alice dampened. "Anita Blake Vampire Hunter?"

"I don't know why they call it that, it isn't really about that." Bella rolled her eyes while trying to not give this conversation any weight at all, even though it was clearly a concern for Alice. Bella reminded herself that it was just a book and she better not act like it was anything more than that, or that vampires were anything more than that. "She raises zombies for a living and works with the cops a bit." Bella shrugged and picked up her bag, but Alice had put the book down and was now moving toward her bookshelf. Oh, this was not good.

Bella put her bag back down and sat on the bed as Alice looked over her small book collection. "I don't see any of those non-fiction books you talked about."

"Most of my books came from the library, I don't spend my money on books too often." Bella was thinking as quickly as she could, but there was only one idea coming to mind. She got up and walked to the bookshelf, pulling one of the more recent books from the shelf and flipped through it looking for a steamy scene and then opened it to a page she'd read a few times.

The blush wouldn't go away, but she held the book out for Alice to read that page. "Read this." She spoke more quietly. Alice's eyes moved over the page, and Bella noticed it didn't seem to take very long at all. "Anita gets turned into a succubus after a few books and she HAS to have sex. She feeds on sexual energy." Bella smiled just a little as Alice looked up at her. "What's not to love?" She was doing her best to minimize the vampires in the books.

"So these are pretty steamy?" Alice smiled and shook the book in her hand. "Can I borrow?"

"Sure, you need to start with the beginning though, or it makes no sense." Bella moved to grab the first three books off her shelf, all while thinking this was surreal. She was letting a vampire borrow her vampire books. And it was best to not even talk about vampires with Alice.

"Do you read a lot of vampire books?" Alice asked and she was speaking just a hint softer. Bella looked up and thought the smile looked a little faked.

"No, not at all. Just these, and it's more about zombies and were creatures." Bella smiled her own fake smile. "I like stories with strong female characters, the wait for the man to save you type of women make me a little sick. You're responsible for your own safety, and bonus points to any female character that saves others as well." Bella tapped the back of the stack of books she was bringing for Alice to borrow. "I like these books because Anita kicks ass."

"And has sex." Alice teased, making Bella's blush come back. The sex in the books actually detracted from the story, at times, but now she was going to have to sell the steamy part to avoid the vampire part.

"The sex doesn't start right off the bat. There are a few books before that, but I promise these are good." Bella handed Alice the books. "Three at a time, I don't want you hogging them all."

"What else do you read?" Alice glanced around the room, but there weren't any other stashes of books.

After the panic of dealing with this conversation, Bella couldn't really think of another title, or other books. Her mind was stuck for a bit. "Um, Harry Potter, some Dragons, I like fairies." She nibbled on her lips as she struggled. "Gods, oh, and Piers Anthony, he had a great series with Death and Time and God." She had no idea what it was called at the moment though. "Even Satan, he made a great Satan, not all evil like people assume."

Finally Bella realized that she could turn that on Alice. "What do you read?" It turned out that when Alice wasn't reading fashion magazines, she read historical romances.

"Maybe you won't like Anita." Bella pretended to reach for the books to take them back. "She isn't weak and stupid." Alice shifted her body so Bella couldn't take her tiny stash away.

"No, you already gave these to me." Alice smirked at her. "And my books aren't full of weak and stupid women." Her voice dipped down a little, "And despite what you might think people have been having steamy sex for a very long time." It sounded very good, the way Alice said it, and that made Bella blush.

"Come on, let's go." Alice took the bag Bella had packed with one hand and held the books in the other. Bella found herself just following the small vampire out of her house.

Once they got to the house, Bella made sure to grab her bag quickly, so she wasn't just following along and she went with Alice to her room to drop it off. Bella dropped her bag on top of Alice's bed. She hadn't really been sure what to pack for the slumber party, but she should be fine with what she had. Alice was grinning at her way too intensely, and Alice looked at her like a child eager to play with an amazing new toy. It was just a little scary how quickly she switched into excited mode.

"You brought pajamas right? I made sure to buy some for Rosalie and I." Alice asked while looking at her bag. "What else did you bring?" Bella easily caught that the vampires probably didn't have any before this, but she ignored it and watched an impatient Alice hovering over her bag.

"Nothing all that interesting. I don't have much." Bella told Alice and sighed while she unzipped the bag to let the little vampire go through her things. It wasn't a big deal and Alice was so beyond curious, and so cute, about what Bella was starting to think was her first slumber party that it was easy to want to humor her.

"You really need new underwear." Alice muttered and Bella found herself blushing. She hadn't expected that thorough of an investigation of her stuff. "Jockey?"

"I like them." Bella defended her choice and pulled a pair out of the small vampire's hands to stuff it back into the zippered part of her bag. "No special hassle to wash them, and no one was going to be seeing them, but the girls in gym class and they," Bella gave Alice a slight frown, "know better than to look."

"These are your pajamas?" Alice asked, pulled the shirt and shorts out, and inspected them.

"I walk around Charlie in my pj's Alice, you want to tell me they should be sexy now?" Bella raised an eyebrow in challenge and caught Alice stopping herself from talking.

"Wow, you won." A deeper feminine voice spoke from the doorway and Bella looked over to see the blonde vampire watching them with amusement. Rosalie leaned against the doorway and crossed her arms, while staring at Bella. The hint of a smile faded and the blonde spoke slowly. "You're trying to steal Emmett away from me."

"What?" Bella's eyes widened and her mind went to the talk Charlie tried to have with her when she got back from her Saturday with Emmett alone. Charlie had been convinced this conversation with Rosalie was coming, and Bella had been so sure it wouldn't. "I wouldn't, I mean I can't." She stammered as she watched Rosalie move to step into the room and toward her.

"He had so much fun Saturday he wouldn't stop talking about it." Rosalie smirked at her and Bella felt like she would be able to breathe again, soon, if Rosalie backed away from her a bit. God, was that her scent? The blonde was beautiful enough to not need a draw like that, but she had it alright. Bella took a step back when Rosalie looked like she wasn't moving, and shifted her focus around the room.

Bella managed to convince Alice that a movie came first, so they made their way downstairs to see the dvd library. Bella's eyes widened as she took in the collection. "My god." She whispered in shock, it was extensive. Both women with her chuckled at her.

They sat on the couch, surrounded by too much junk food, and Bella looked over to see Alice giving her a hopeful look. "Can I do your nails while we watch the movie? " It sounded like a movie scene itself, but Rosalie was behind Alice giving Bella a meaningful look.

"Sure." Bella understood. This was fulfilling some fantasy of Alice's and Bella felt her heart warm at the sweetness of it all. "But no pink."

"We need to change into our pj's." Alice grinned and put the movie on pause. Bella had to shift her focus quickly, because Alice was moving too fast, way too fast. Bella focused on the tv and did her best to chuckle at the way the preview had a man's face contorted on pause.

"It's not even seven." Bella told Alice, while staring at a paused television. "It's a little early for pj's." She'd looked away fast enough, almost, but Bella still found herself reeling at the speed Alice achieved. It was the first time she'd seen a vampire really do something a human couldn't, that wasn't just talking quiet. Alice was the one that messed up the most and usually in her house, so Bella was going to have to be extra careful tonight.

"Bella?" Rosalie rested a hand on her thigh, her voice concerned and Bella knew it was because her heart was moving too fast. Her mind raced to come up with a cover for this one as she slowly looked up at Rosalie.

Bella whispered, as if to make sure Alice couldn't hear her, but she wondered if Alice had already left the room or if she froze once she realized what she'd done. "She's not coming out in a teddy or something is she? I mean, she knows that isn't appropriate right?" Her face had to be red, because she was embarrassed as hell with the cover she'd come up with, and wished she hadn't had to say that to Rosalie of all people.

She could see Rosalie relax and the meaningful glance sent over her head, but Bella kept her head down as if she weren't noticing all of that. Alice was in trouble for messing up, but the reassuring voice Rosalie used to tell her that Alice had perfectly appropriate pj's for the night made Bella relax. She'd almost messed that one up as badly as Alice had.

They did change into their pj's and Bella stole the blanket off of Alice's bed, because she was sure she'd get cold at some point and it was better to plan ahead. When she sat back down on the couch, Rosalie shook out the blanked Bella has wadded up into the corner and gently draped it over her. "This is what you wanted right?" the blond asked her gently and Bella could only nod. The way Rosalie had shook the blanket out and practically tucked her in was odd, and so gentle. Bella almost felt like a well loved three year old and she didn't know what to say about that. She did her best to tear her eyes off of Rosalie once the blonde turned to take the chair by the couch and grab the remote.

Alice sat beside her and tugged on Bella's legs to put them in her lap, before pulling part of the blanket off Bella's feet. Bella did her best to get comfortable with her back resting against the couch arm instead of the back and with her feet in Alice's lap. She could feel the coolness of Alice's hands on her bare feet and Bella couldn't help but shiver a little at the touch, the cold, and the intimacy.

"Are you cold?" Alice's face fell a little and it actually hurt to see that.

"No one's ever done my nails before." Bella muttered, and looked at the small hand holding one of her feet. "I don't know if I'm ticklish." She was completely ignoring Alice's concern about her being too cold to touch Bella's feet. Technically, in this body, that was all true.

"I'll be careful." Alice smiled at her and started to open the bright red polish she'd had. Alice didn't have anything from the blue family, which Bella would have preferred so they'd settled for red. "Try not to squirm though, or I'll mess up the job."

It was a movie they'd all seen before, some romantic comedy, so it wasn't something they all were paying all that much attention too. Bella found herself watching Alice work. Alice was working very slowly, as if trying to carefully get the polish on just so. She could occasionally see hints of Alice saying something quietly to Rosalie. Bella let them have their plotting, for all she knew they were trying to figure out how to cover up the fact that only Bella was going to sleep tonight.

…..

Bella woke up, which was a surprise because she didn't remember falling asleep. She remembered a few movies and the make over, and Alice's disappointment when Bella washed the make up off, but it was getting late and she expected to sleep soon. They then put another movie in, and that movie she didn't remember the end of. Bella shifted and opened her eyes.

She was still on the couch, covered with the blanket. The tv was on softly, and the other two were watching it. Well, they were kind of watching it, because Alice had a book in her hands as well.

She moved the blanket and sat up. That had Rosalie looking over at her. "It's okay if you want to sleep. We just weren't tired yet."

"Oh, yeah." Bella rubbed her eyes. "Bathroom." She stood up and she was a little wobbly, which was perfectly normal for someone waking up, but Rosalie was by her side rather quickly, holding her arm to steady her. Bella gave the blonde a small smile. "I'm fine, I just need the bathroom." She managed a full sentence and then started around the couch to find it. "Sorry I fell asleep."

"That's okay." Rosalie told her.

Once Bella was done she went back out to the main room and sat down on the couch, tugging the blanket around her. "What are we watching?"

"It's a Sex in the City marathon, but don't you need to sleep?" Alice asked quietly, as if still trying not to wake her up, even though Bella was awake.

"I can do it in stages." Bella answered. "I'm good for now, and this looks good." She had no idea if it looked good, she just didn't want to disappoint the vampires by sleeping the entire night. It was what she'd do for humans who wanted a sleep over as well, and Bella had already planned naps for when she went back home after this.

She was ten minutes into the movie when Bella let out a huge sigh. "Oh please, she'd be better off with one of her best friends. They need to pair up and leave this loser in the ditch."

Alice started chuckling. "So your happy ending is Mr. Big gets dumped and Carrie Bradshaw goes gay?"

"Who should she go gay with?" Rosalie was teasing her and Bella blushed and refocused on the tv, as if selecting.

"I think she'd look good with the redhead." She couldn't say she'd seen a few of these shows before, because seriously how much could she have seen in the nine months of memories she was supposed to have. She thought of Carrie's three friends, Miranda was the best of the lot. She wanted off this topic. "Did you buy any ice cream?" She asked Alice. Alice looked pleased and got up to get the chocolate for her.

"We already ate ours, while you were sleeping." Alice added and Bella found herself amused at the cheating, they weren't even pretending to eat anymore, just claiming she missed it.

Fifteen minutes later Bella was still working on the ice cream, because the Cullen freezer worked very well and she'd had to wait for it to thaw a bit. "If you could sleep with any movie star you wanted to, who would it be?" Alice asked, and it was like she was going through a sleep over script.

"Alice!" Rosalie objected and glanced at Bella. "Not everything is about sex." It seemed like Rosalie wasn't sure Bella wasn't going to get 'ideas' from this.

"It's just a game Rose." Alice pouted and Bella really felt bad for her. This sleep over was way too important to the little vampire.

"Are we time traveling in this one?" Bella asked, thinking about Marlene Deitrich. Something about the elegance these vampires always exuded reminded her of the old movie stars.

Rose huffed, but Alice just grinned. "Anyone past or present."

Bella blushed and glanced around, so she wasn't looking at either of them for a moment while she screwed up a little courage. "Well, Marlene Deitrich was pretty hot."

Alice blinked a few times and then her grin became a little wicked. "Oh really? So your mind immediately went to Marlene?"

"Well, I mean, there are others." Bella felt like taking back her words at that moment. She could see Rosalie giving her an assessing look as well, but it was giddy and evil like Alice's.

"And are ANY of them actually men?" Alice asked her and Rosalie wasn't really objecting to the questions anymore.

"Some." Bella felt like her blush was probably easy for the vampires to smell at this point. "Dean Cain." She offered one up, an admittedly rare, male on her list. She'd thought he was pretty hot as Superman.

She could see Alice opening her mouth up to ask more, and Bella gave her a small glare. "Your turn." Was all she said, and she crossed her arms in front of her. She was not playing interrogation, this was supposed to be equal here.

Rosalie gave Bella one more look before turning to Alice. "One of each then." In that moment Bella felt grateful and almost tearfully happy at how quickly the vampires just accepted it. She'd put her neck out and it was okay, they weren't going to let her feel odd. Alice frowned, clearly deep in thought, so Rosalie turned to face Bella. "Julie Newmar and Brad Pitt."

"Oh," Alice said as soon as Brad's name was out. "Angelina Jolie and, ugh, I should pick an older star like you two did." She paused for a bit, before her smile grew with confidence. "James Dean."

After that Bella did wonder at how easy it was for Rosalie to come up with a woman's name, it was much easier than Alice, who had clearly cheated and just picked the one that came to mind after Rosalie said Brad. Half of the women in America would probably say Angelina if they had to play this game.

…

"Hey sleepyhead," A soft voice spoke near her and Bella opened her eyes. "You slept through breakfast, but we saved you some." Rosalie told her and Bella blinked her eyes and glanced around the main room. She was sleeping on the couch again, but it was daylight out. Daylight in this house was very daylight, with the wall of windows.

"What time is it?" Bella managed to sit up, but the help of Rosalie's hand on her shoulder was nice.

"It's eight." Rosalie told her. "There are some pancakes left." As if any were missing, Bella thought with some amusement. She followed Rosalie into the kitchen to see Alice washing a few dishes. More elaborate, they were pretending they'd really eaten.

Two sets of golden eyes stared at her as she brought the first forkful toward her mouth. Bella did her best to ignore that, but it felt odd. The pancake tasted okay and she noticed Rosalie relax a little when Bella didn't just spit it out, so she found the cook. Esme was supposedly away overnight with Carlisle and the boys were supposedly camping. Bella knew everyone else was taking this time to hunt and to give the girls the privacy Alice wanted for an 'authentic' sleep over. It was a little sad Esme couldn't figure out a way to make it so she could stay as well, but Bella knew it would be odd, and since no one realized Bella was in on everything, they weren't going to do odd. Besides, Esme had been playing the mother for so long, Bella wasn't sure Esme could turn it off.

"I say we do make overs today, because then you'll get to keep it on for the day." Alice offered with a smile. "If we didn't get pictures, last night's work would have been completely wasted."

"I don't know about that. I still have nice red toes." Bella glanced down at Alice's bare feet as well. "And you're still pretty in pink." She'd painted Alice's toes too. They were cold little toes, and Bella joked about cold feet in her back after she fell asleep, which made both vampires more comfortable looking when Bella didn't make a big deal or ask questions. "I'm not doing anything special after I leave tonight, except catch up on sleep."

They both frowned at that, so Bella had to continue. "I heard there was never much sleep at a sleep over, so I made plans to take a nap today." Their frowns eased and after Bella ate the last bite of her breakfast, Alice took the plate to wash that as well.

….


	18. Chapter 18

**Emmett pov**

Esme was hogging Bella again, and Emmett was a little bored. Bella's dresser was coming along nicely, apparently, but it was coming along at a human pace so they'd needed today to try and finish it up before Edward's being around made that a little more difficult for a while.

"Why have you started pouting?" Rose asked him after a moment and he looked up to see she wasn't reading that book that Alice lent her. It wasn't really Rose's style to read about vampires, but Rose was looking over that book like there would be a test on it later and she'd never read it before.

"Bella bear doesn't have a good tv and she doesn't have any gaming systems. I just don't know what we'll do after school when Eddie gets back." Emmett didn't want to miss out on his Bella time. He already had to share it.

"Give her one of the smaller tv's, and tell her we were replacing it." Rose glanced at the tv they had mounted on the wall across from their bed. It wouldn't be as big as he liked, but it was newer and Emmett looked at it a moment. He'd hooked his games up to it before, it wasn't even difficult. "I'm sure Esme could incorporate it into that bedroom design they are always talking about, and she's often hiding in her room when Charlie's watching sports, so she might like a tv of her own."

"You are brilliant." He gave his wife a warm smile and got up to kiss her gently. "That's perfect. She won't turn down things we're getting rid of anyhow."

"Of course you're going to figure out how to get Charlie to let you hang out with his only daughter in her bedroom." Rose gave him a wicked smile as she threw that curve ball at him. As soon as she said it, he knew that was going to be a problem.

"You could come." He offered, knowing that if Rose was there Charlie would feel much better about it, and hey, his Rosie did help to fluster Bella at times so he could win.

"I could." Rosalie frowned down at the book in her hands. "I'd at least get to see these other books she's been reading." Emmett glanced at the book again and this time took a deep breath. It smelled of Alice, and Bella as well. "Alice found out she's been reading books that have vampires in them. I'm trying to see what the vampires in this are like. We're nothing like the myths, but still, I don't want her suspecting anything if we can help it."

"Can I borrow that after you're done?" Emmett asked quietly.

"I was going to suggest that." Rose sighed and looked up at him. "Maybe it's better if we aren't here as much when we spend time with her. We're used to being ourselves at home, and we're just lucky that she doesn't notice things. Alice ran, really ran, the other day in front of her, but because she was embarrassed about what Alice might be planning to wear she wasn't looking. It was close, and I know Alice wouldn't have made that mistake anywhere but here."

Emmett was a bit stunned to find it was Alice messing up. He'd kind of assumed that if anyone messed up in front of Bella it would be one of the guys, him or Edward or Jasper really, and if Edward or Jasper were messing up, it would be a huge fight, because he wasn't letting anyone kill his Bella bear.

"Esme is going to be disappointed." He managed to remember.

"She can invite Bella places if she wants to, but I don't think it's a good idea to tempt Edward, and I don't want her seeing something that means we have to move. I think she'd be a little devastated if all of her friends left her at once, without any warning." Rose shook her head and she frowned. "She's not even trying to make human friends, she avoids them like they are the monsters. I thought if she didn't have lunch with us she'd find other friends, ones that weren't vampires, but instead she eats alone in the library."

"She's different and she doesn't act like them." Emmett spoke softly. "And after how the kids at her last school treated her, I'm sure she thinks they ARE all monsters." He gritted his teeth. "I mean what kind of bastards pick on a girl with no memory?" If that had happened at Forks High, he would have been in the principal's office for fighting every day, teaching the little bastards a lesson. As is, Mike was never going to touch or talk to his Bella Bear again.

Rose rested a hand on his arm, and that always helped to calm him down, even when he was a newborn she had that power over him. He smiled at her after a moment. "I love you." He told her gently and she leaned into him for a deeper kiss.

Her soft little moan was all it took to green light his fingers running across the waist of her pants, caressing the exposed skin of her stomach as he did it. "How about we find something fun to do?" He asked quietly and felt her smile into his kiss after that.

"We can't get too noisy, or break things. There is a human in the house after all." Rose whispered as she pushed him back onto the bed.

….

** Esme Pov**

Esme could smell that the paint on the dresser was dry enough, but she lightly touched it with her fingers to be absolutely sure. After that she stood back and studied what they had made with a small smile. Her hand reached out to grab the shelf and pulled it out so that the desk was visible. It rolled smoothly. It was really quite clever and she wished she'd seen the show about this. Bella had proved to be quite clever herself as they'd created a plan to make this, since neither of them had found instructions. They'd left a small gap, big enough for one of Bella's textbooks to be left on the shelf and still have the desk slide back into the dresser.

The sanding and painting had taken time, more than it should really, but at a human pace that was apparently how long it took.

"Looks good Esme." She heard Rosalie speak up while slipping into the garage. Esme could see Rose was dressed for working on one of their cars.

"I'm bringing it over to Bella's house this afternoon." Esme glanced at the cars in the garage meaningfully.

"You need Emmett and his Jeep, don't you?" Rose smiled. "You better bring Jasper as well." Esme sighed. That was a little irritating at times, pretending to have to have the boys do things as if she couldn't. Still, it made sense, and Bella had said her father was home today so even if Bella didn't tend to question much, he might.

Maybe she'd have a moment to talk with Charlie while the boys kept Bella busy. Esme hoped so, she wasn't sure if Charlie realized that his daughter was trying to be so very independent. Knowing Bella as she did now, she suspected he didn't even know Bella had a wish list of things she wanted to make life her in Forks better, some of which he would surely be able to afford for his daughter and she wasn't asking for. How hard was it to ask for a gallon of paint? Sure, he probably couldn't afford a car right away for her, and that computer for school work was hard for some families to get, but not everything Bella was trying to budget for was out of reach for a normal family. The girl just wasn't used to having a parent, Renee had ruined her for that, and Esme wanted to give Charlie a heads up that Bella would not ask for what she needed.

Esme loaded up the jeep on her own, easily, and made sure to secure the dresser so it wouldn't slip if Emmett, or when Emmett, took a turn fast. "Make sure to get the tv too." Rosalie slid out from under her BMW to point to the 22 inch tv and the mounting hardware they were apparently sneaking into Bella's room as a gift. Esme planned to have it mounted above the dresser desk, but to the left so that they could put bookshelves on the wall as well. It wasn't too big a deviation from the plan for the room.

Edward was returning later today, so Esme was busy trying to get things done before the inevitable family meeting. She found the boys watching a movie and dragged them with her to Bella's.

Esme was a little eager to see the room before they started work and she was going to take a few pictures of it too, so that they could see the improvements, and for the portfolio of Bella's work she was starting for the girl. Bella designed the room, with advice from Esme and so it was something she might be able to show an interior design school in the future. Esme even wrote notes down about the decision process for the room that she was putting in the portfolio as well, so that Bella could talk about her work years later and remember what she'd done and why.

An hour later Esme was listening to Bella talking with Emmett and Jasper, explaining where the dresser went, while she stood in the kitchen with Bella's father. "She's an amazing girl." Esme smiled at him. "A complete delight to have over." He started to have a bit of a smile. "And I love that she has an interest in interior design. My own children don't really have an interest in my work, but Bella listens to my stories and ask questions. I let her use my office to design her bedroom and she's talented." Esme could see some confusion in his eyes, which confirmed what she'd suspected.

"Interior design eh?" Charlie glanced around his kitchen, and into the living room. Both rooms needed work as far as Esme could see.

"She designed the modifications to the dresser. Once it's set up you have to have her show you what she's come up with. It's ingenious." Esme told him and watched the quiet man become more interested. Clearly he cared more about Bella's interests than her mother ever had. "It converts into a desk, with plenty of space for her homework." Esme felt a little guilty, doing this behind Bella's back, but it needed to be done. "And her plans for that room are inspiring. To have a vision like this at her age, she understands style and color. I can't wait until she finishes it. I haven't told her but I'm creating a portfolio of her work on this room, in case she decides to major in interior design. I think her work will speak for itself, and paired with her grades, any school would take her when it comes time."

They talked a little about interior design and she could see he was struggling to understand what that was. Esme could also hear Bella was surprised when Emmett pulled out the tv, but it sounded like her large son got a hug for his generosity.

A little later and she could hear her sons were doing their job, distracting Bella with setting that tv up. "Charlie, I am concerned about how independent Bella is." She spoke more softly and the man set his coffee cup down. She had been pretending to drink hers, even though the smell of it was nasty as she pulled it to her lips. Esme frowned. "She's unusually mature, which isn't surprising based on what little I've heard." She didn't want to point fingers at Renee at the moment. "But has she asked you for anything a child should ask their parent for?"

"What do you mean?" His voice was deeper and more serious.

"Her new room, she wants to make it her own. Has she even mentioned it?" Esme could see him shaking his head. "And clothes, or money for entertainment?" He was starting to frown. "I know she didn't even consider asking you for a computer for her school work, or a car. She's prioritized her needs, even the paint for the walls, and she's planning on paying for everything herself, once she can find a job." Esme sighed. "I know many parents start to make their children responsible for some of their own needs at this age, but I didn't think that was what happened here. Bella is a special child, and her medical condition makes it very unique for you. I don't think she realizes she can ask." She could see his eyes getting a little glassy and Charlie glanced away, and got up to get a refill on his coffee.

"Before the accident, Bella was really her mother's child." Charlie spoke up, but he was looking away and Esme pretended to not see him wipe at his eyes. Having a child that forgot who you were had to be painful at times. "I didn't get to raise her, this is my second chance with her. I'm doing the best I can, but I need her to tell me what she needs. I don't know what I'm doing. She doesn't have any of the normal problems the guys at work tell me about, she's so different, so mature. I just thought she'd tell me."

"Teenagers aren't known for their communication skills." Esme told him gently. "You have to drag the words out of them." Her own kids were far from normal, but she'd been around long enough to hear the stories from other people. She kept up on talk shows and books, because with five kids, it was assumed she'd know. She'd had to borrow stories she'd heard and claim that Edward or Alice or the others had done this or that as a child, while mingling at one of Carlisle's work functions. "Make her tell you about her school day in detail, ask about her personal projects, start asking about her plans for after high school." Charlie moved to sit back down and Esme resisted the urge to rest a comforting hand on his arm, because her skin was far too cold. "I know her past is a sensitive subject to her, but her present and her future, you need to be talking to her about those."

"I don't know how you do it, with five of them." Charlie shook his head. Esme just smiled.

"If you're ever completely lost, feel free to ask for help. I think of her as one of my own already. I love spending time with her. She's so bright, and so focused." The boys were coming down the stairs and they should leave.

"It's good for her to have a woman around." Charlie nodded. "I'd been a little concerned about that."

It was good that he'd even thought about that. He didn't need to worry though, because Esme was already on the job.

"Chief Swan." Emmett stepped into the room with a grin. "You might want to call the cable company. Bella has a new tv." Esme nodded to him, it was a good move to say something before Bella could put it on her list of what she needed to buy herself again.

"Emmett got a new one, a bit larger for his gaming addiction." Esme smiled and explained. "So he thought he'd give Bella his old one. It was going to end up at the Goodwill."

"Oh, well, that's mighty nice of you." Charlie said, mostly to her, all Emmett got was a searching look. Charlie seemed to only have the suspicion of boys part of being a father down so far.

…

Carlisle had been working quite a bit of overtime this week, but he was home in time for the family meeting. Esme sat at the dining room table beside him, looking around the table at her family and she could see the tension in their eyes. Edward was outspoken, and had many opinions. His gift meant that they often left a town when he said they should leave, because he'd 'heard' something that made it time to leave. In looking at the tension in Rosalie and Emmett's eyes, they hadn't made it very clear to the others that Edward's opinions were different than his observations and they didn't just drop everything whenever he said to. He'd always had a good reason before, it wasn't that they always did what he said to do.

"I appreciate that you all have formed some sort of attachment to this human." Edward spoke and looked around. "But really, are you crazy? We're vampires! If you really liked this girl you'd stay away from her." His eyes darted to Rosalie and then Alice. "You've even slipped up in front of her?" His words became more accusing.

Esme just shook her head and glanced over at Carlisle, who'd decided to let Edward have his say like this. It wasn't going to make a difference though, because Esme wasn't going to give up the girl. Edward's eyes turned to stare at her and she held his gaze. If they were truly as evil to be around as Edward claimed, then why did they even try to live like they did? Why did they send five vampires to the local high school? No, they had fought hard for their control, and for the ability to have a somewhat normal life and Esme did not believe that what she was made her inherently evil. She had love to give and that girl needed it.

His eyes then jerked over to Emmett's and Esme could see he was hearing thoughts he didn't like. Emmett sat as stiffly as she did as he stared his brother down.

"This is insane." Edward muttered and his eyes moved around the room until they rested on Jasper. "You understand how wrong this is."

"I haven't felt so much aliveness and joy in this family in a long time. Sure, having a human around is uncomfortable, but I'd do it just for Alice, and it isn't just Alice that wants her."

"This isn't a pet," His eyes moved around to stare at Esme, "isn't a new child, or a toy," He turned to stare at Emmett and Esme pursed her lips to see how Edward was still arguing this.

"We've agreed to not have her over anymore." Rosalie cut in. "I don't think who we befriend is a matter of a vote, but if it is, I say we just vote and get this over with." Rose knew, just like Esme did, that they had the majority.

"I'm sorry Edward." Carlisle glanced around the room. "I know this is uncomfortable for you, but I'm going to vote with the others on this. Bella stays. We'll be more careful about what she sees, but I'm not about to deny everyone for your sake."

"And when she figures out something is wrong about us?" Edward stared into Carlisle's eyes and Esme sighed heavily at the challenge inherent in the way he sat.

"We will deal with that if it happens." Carlisle stood firm. Esme was grateful that she didn't have to argue harder, because she would have if it had looked like they might actually move.

"You've been training with her scent." Jasper spoke up. "Are you feeling prepared to meet her? She will be in the halls at school, so you need to be able to resist the pull at least enough to deal with that."

"Unless you'd prefer for us to say we are home schooling you." Esme offered.

"That would look too strange if you did it just for me." Edward grimaced. "And I need to monitor her thoughts so I know when your little experiment blows up in your face."

It won't, Esme thought at him, but she did approve of his willingness to let go of this. His staying home would have raised eyebrows, but they were asking a lot of him. She knew it wasn't fair, she felt bad about that, but if there was any way to stay she wanted to. Right now, she felt like her heart would break completely if she had to leave Bella behind. She let herself think of all the things she loved about the girl, about the hours she'd spent with her talking while working on that dresser. Surely Edward would see how special Bella was.

"Alice, you wanted to have me meet her here. That sounds safer." Edward let out a heavy sigh. "I'd rather know how bad it is in person before I find myself in the parking lot at school with her."

"We were going to the movies tomorrow night. I'll make sure to have to come home before dropping her back off at her house." Alice spoke up.

"Okay, I suggest you hunt well tonight Edward. Perhaps Jasper would be willing to go with you?" Carlisle spoke up and the boys were out the door in less than thirty minutes.

"Are we doing the right thing?" Carlisle spoke quietly once they were alone.

"His objections are just motivated by fear. He doesn't know anything, and Alice says that we'll be fine. Bella is smart and sweet, but she doesn't really notice things like other humans." Esme told him and then kissed him gently. "Thank you. I'm glad you're willing to let us try."

…


	19. Chapter 19

Bella had one of her boxes of summer clothes open on the bed and was unpacking the more useful pieces into the bottom drawers. Some items she set aside for the closet, depending on where she thought it should go. As she was refolding a pair of shorts, the bedroom door, which had been barely cracked open slowly opened. She looked up to see Charlie standing in the doorway. "So, that's this miracle dresser Mrs. Cullen told me you two built?"

Bella set her shorts down. "We didn't build it from scratch. We just refurbished it and put a new top on it." She moved closer to it when Charlie came into the room to look at it.

"It's a transformer of some sort?" He asked, studying the top and Bella grinned a little at the comment.

She reached out and grabbed the pull out shelf, "Dresser to desk" She said as she pulled it out.

"That is really cool Bells." He smiled at her and it was a little odd. He was still here, visiting. "Where did you get the idea for this?"

As they started talking and he was asking her how she did this, she found it easier to talk about it. When she told him what tools they'd used, she found him giving her a studying look. "You like to build things." He said suddenly, as if it was amazing. Bella found herself blushing at his soft smile. "Handy with tools, must have got that from me." He teased. Then he turned to look at the dresser again. "It looks really good Bells. What else are you planning to do?"

She paused as she realized she might need to ask. "I was going to paint the walls green, put up some more bookshelves." There was more, but she paused. "Would that be okay?"

"Sure, hey, maybe we could go get dinner at the diner and then stop by the hardware store and get that paint for you, the hardware store might have shelves too." He looked at the space over the dresser. "I think I know where my level is, I'll have to look for it."

Bella frowned a little, "You don't have to do that. I'm planning to start looking for work next week."

"Hey," Charlie turned to look at her, his expression soft. "I want to Bells, and I should. I'm responsible for you and you can ask for anything. I might not be able to give it to you, but you can ask for anything." He moved to rest a hand on her shoulder. "One thing I really want is for this room to feel like home for you. I want you to like living here."

"I do." Bella told him, and she did her best to ignore the stinging in her eyes at how sweet he was being.

"Well, that's good." He looked down. "Why don't you get some shoes on and we'll go get some dinner. Then maybe we can get your room painted tomorrow before your date with Alice."

"Um, I'm not dating Alice." Bella spoke slowly. Charlie's teasing grin faded a little and he gave her a searching look for a moment.

It was in the middle of dinner, when they didn't sit in silence and just eat that Bella started to consider that Esme had been left alone with Charlie for a while today, and now he was twenty times more talkative. It was strange really, but Bella found she didn't really mind, although he really had a one track mind at times.

"You're sure that Emmett knows you're just friends." Charlie asked again.

"Dad, I'm sure he'll be bringing Rose over at some point. When you see her, you'll see why I'm not too worried about him falling for me." She gave him a small smile, but he frowned.

"Bells, you're a lovely girl." He told her.

"She's a goddess Charlie." She whispered to him, she found herself starting to blush. "She's beautiful and smart, and he loves her so much. I expect they'll still be together sixty years from now." And then some, Bella thought to herself. "And she's good for him. I really like her."

"Just be careful Bells. It's tricky being friends with a couple and I don't want you getting hurt." He told her and Bella didn't really understand what he was talking about, but she just nodded.

….

Alice came into the house and went up the stairs. Bella followed her, curious as to what the odd little vampire was doing. "I want the next three books." She said, but when she opened the bedroom door there was a happy sound. "Oh, this color looks good. I knew it would."

Bella hadn't told Alice she was going to paint, she hadn't even known until last night. The little vampire was a menace, slipping up way too much. Someone was a little too reliant on her powers. "Oh you did, did you?" Bella teased as she passed Alice and moved to her new shelves to pull off the next three books in the series. "You better have my other books, only three at a time."

"I do, I do. How many are there?" Alice asked, glancing at the bookshelf behind Bella.

"Right now, there are twelve, but I only have eleven. I'm trying really hard to wait for the last one to come out in paperback." Bella watched Alice glance at the shelf again. "You like them right?" Something about Alice's expression said she wasn't thrilled with that many.

"No, Anita's great, you were right." Alice pulled three books out of her bag and they traded. Once the new books were put in her bag Alice looked up. "What do you think of Jean Claude?"

Bella took a moment to turn and put some of the books back on her shelf, as she considered that question. Was Alice asking about what she thought about one of the men in the story, or what she thought of the vampire in the story? And which question was she going to answer?

"Well, I like that he's very open minded, and not possessive." She muttered and turned to look at Alice again. "I like him a hell of a lot more than, 'oh I hate myself so much' Richard." And Edward, she thought to herself. "I mean who wants to love someone who doesn't even love themselves? It's ridiculous, he's not ready, toss him back."

Alice tilted her head a little and stared at her, and she was forgetting to blink. Perhaps this was Alice in a vision, Bella knew she had them. It was a little creepy. Finally her eyes blinked. "Yes, I thought Richard wasn't the best match." And Bella could almost feel the other questions wanting to come out. "I like Jean Claude much better." But she'd avoided it successfully. There would be no discussion about vampires right now.

They were nearly down the stairs when Charlie came out of the kitchen. He smiled widely at them. "You two girls have fun. What movie are you seeing?" It was just a little odd, and a little more friendly than normal, but Bella figured having Cullens over as often as she had lately had helped the shy man adjust.

"Taking Lives" Alice smiled and looked over at Bella with mischievous eyes. "I love Angelina Jolie."

"Oh, that's good." Charlie just nodded, and Bella did what she could to not blush at the teasing in Alice's eyes. "I'm glad Bella is making such good friends." And that blush battle was lost. "Did you need some money Bells?"

"No, I'm good." Bella wasn't comfortable with how much he'd been paying for lately.

"I'm paying tonight anyhow Charlie. I asked Bella out." Alice told them with a smile and Charlie started to blush. It was news to Bella and she turned to stare at the little vampire. Did she even know what that sounded like? Now Charlie was going to think Bella was dating Alice.

Ugh, she'd deal with that later. "Well, we better get going." Bella muttered and grabbed Alice's hand to tug her away from the house before she put her foot in it any more. She only let go after they were out of the house.

"He's still watching us." Alice told her and Bella didn't need to turn around to see the smile on Alice's face.

"If I get kicked out for 'dating' you, you will be forced to find me a place to live." Bella didn't really think Charlie would do that at all, but she gave Alice a scolding look.

"I wouldn't have teased like that if I he'd hurt you." Alice's smile was fading. "I promise."

"I'm sure it'll be fine when I explain it later." Bella sighed heavily and then just paused as she saw Alice opening the car door for her. 'This isn't helping though.' She thought to herself, and glanced back at the man just watching this. Charlie gave her a slow wave goodbye as Alice shut the car door for Bella and started to move to the driver's side.

Alice pulled the car onto the street and Bella watched her as the vampire drove. "When you finally decide to date, what will you be dating?"

"An adult." Bella muttered and turned to look out the windshield for a moment.

Alice laughed, her voice like music. "Is that your only criteria?"

"I don't know." Bella sighed and turned to look at an amused looking Alice. "Things are kind of weird for me right now." She gave Alice a small smile. "Probably a woman, I'm not saying for sure, because maybe there is a man that might pass inspection, but honestly, I doubt it. But it doesn't really matter, because it's going to be a while."

"Girls your age want to start dating." Alice said, sounding pretty puzzled and Bella ignored that by appearances they were the same age. Technically, Alice was dating.

"Not all of them." Bella turned back to watching the road, so that might encourage Alice to at least pretend she needed to do that too. "I'm older on the inside." She whispered, knowing that Alice would not really understand how literal she was being. "I don't want to deal with teenagers and teenage drama. I'm also not interested in whatever pedophile might find me interesting. I don't really have any options. She tried to smile. "So since you're the one getting some, is Jasper any good?"

Alice didn't speak for a little too long to be comfortable. "I'm not disappointed with him." She answered briefly, and Bella turned to look at her and raised an eyebrow at the vampire who was now looking out the windshield. She stared longer and the edge of Alice's lip started to curve up into a reluctant smile.

"So he's not a minute man?" Bella asked.

"He's not that old." Alice protested and Bella chuckled. Sure, if she were talking about the American Revolution, then that would fit, but she was talking sex. Only a vampire would assume the first.

"That's not what it means." She grinned at the vampire, and she watched Alice's expression change, and a blush would have looked like it belonged, so apparently that was as close as Alice got to blushing. "I asked if his 'gun' ever made it into the 'holster', or if he,"

"I get it." Alice interrupted her and gave her a fake scolding look. "And a lady never talks about that."

"So that means I'll get lots of details from you, right?" Bella chuckled.

Alice finally lost her fake scowl and grinned mischievously. "It wouldn't be fair to get you all hot and bothered hearing how intense things get in my bed when you plan to wait years before getting any of your own."

"That's okay, I'll fill in the blanks myself. I bet you wear lots of leather." Bella nodded as if she'd confirmed her guess. "And he looks lovely in your clothes."

Alice would never bray her laughs like Emmett, but Bella thought this was as close as Alice would ever get to it. The little vampire actually swerved a little in their lane, but since there wasn't another car nearby it wasn't a problem.

"You are surprisingly wicked Bella." Alice smiled at her and then seemed to focus more on driving, because they started moving along the freeway faster. "He would never fit in my clothes, he's several sizes larger than me."

They didn't need to go all the way to Port Angeles for a movie theater, 'Taking Lives' was playing much closer, so Alice was pulling into the parking lot much sooner than Bella would have liked. There was so much more she could tease the little vampire about , and making Alice do her little 'not a blush' was fun.

After a movie, where Bella pretended not to notice how much of Alice's popcorn ended up on the floor Alice stared blankly at the windshield for a little too long, not blinking, in that creepy way she had, before blinking and nodding t herself. "You don't mind if we stop by my house on the way home do you?" Alice turned to look at her. "I forgot to bring the books I was going to lend you." Alice smiled, but Bella had heard Edward was coming back yesterday.

"I don't know." She muttered, and turned to look at the dashboard, so that she wouldn't have to see Alice's puppy dog eyes pleading with her as she considered this.

"Why not, I mean you can meet my other brother, and I can give you more steamy books." Alice sounded like she was bribing her, trying to make it all sound tempting, only it never would be.

"I don't know if it's a good idea, I mean you said he's going to hate me being around." Bella glanced over at Alice. "You wouldn't just leave me if he didn't get along with me, would you?" Bella asked, but it was the second question she really needed an answer too. "What if he isn't okay with me?"

"None of us are going to let him be a jerk to you." Alice told her. "It'll be okay." And Bella just nodded a little, but she felt like the popcorn was churning and popping again in her stomach as she did it. If she had to meet him, she'd prefer it be around the rest of the vampires, that were strong enough to stop him if he tried anything.

Bella didn't talk much on the drive back, and she could see Alice going quiet at times as well, and a few concerned looks were tossed her way. Bella felt sick, and her mind churned as well, wondering what would happen if the Cullens suddenly found out she knew what they were. The Volturi law was pretty clear on what they should do, and Bella was sure that they wouldn't kill her in spite of that law, but what would they do?

They made having to be a teenager again bearable. Bella didn't want to lose them. She'd survive, she wouldn't go insane like the Bella Swan they were supposed to get would have, but she knew she'd miss them. It would hurt. She would also hate Edward if they left her.

It was hard not to start making plans for if this went south, but she managed. She couldn't have a plan appear in a vision, where she said things that would not have been revealed if she didn't plan it. No, instead Bella turned her thoughts to how to make Edward reveal if he was listening to her thoughts without thinking anything that would be a problem for him to overhear.

"I just meant to warn you that he wouldn't be welcoming. I didn't mean for you to be scared of him." Alice spoke up softly, after they turned onto the long road that would eventually connect with her driveway. Bella knew it was her speeding up heart that inspired Alice's words, but lying and saying she wasn't scared wouldn't work. She'd only need to be in the driveway for Jasper to figure it out, most likely.

"I have too much to lose if he doesn't like me." She muttered, thinking of blood and life, but also of the Cullens.

"We won't ignore you. He doesn't get to pick our friends." Alice said it like it was a fact, but as far as Bella had read, it very well might not be true. Carlisle claimed to be the leader of the family, but Edward had so much say over what happened in the books, it wasn't right to ignore the threat of him. "And he isn't as bad as I accidently made him seem. He is a bit of a loner, but then he is the only one of us that doesn't have a mate. It can't be easy." Alice turned onto the driveway. "Edward loves music. He has an amazing cd collection, and the piano in the main room is his. Esme loves to hear him play." When Bella didn't say anything, Alice continued. "Edward is also very bright, he has the best grades."

How hard would that be? Bella was redoing high school for the first time, and she noticed how much easier most of the work was. He'd been in school how long? If his grades weren't great by now he'd have to be a moron.

"It would suck to play the piano." Bella finally spoke up. "You could never take it with you anywhere." It was a dull, and boring conversation, but she did it just to stop Alice from trying to sing Edward's praises any more. "If I had to learn an instrument I'd go for something more portable."

"What, like a flute?"

"I don't think so, what songs could you play with just a flute? Probably a guitar." Bella watched the trees as they went passed them.

"Are you ever going to try and learn guitar?" Alice asked as they took the turn before they'd see the house.

"Charlie likes having me around, I think I'll reframe from learning an instrument and making him reconsider." Bella gave a weak smile, but all her focus was on her thoughts. It was showtime and she dug deep into her mind for the most upsetting thoughts she could share with a controlling prude from the 1920's.

The female vampires around here might not be comfortable with her if he could read her mind, but they wouldn't be scared of what she knew. Only one thing could keep her mind off of vampires, and sadly it was the one thing she tried not to think about around them too much. How very sexy they really were. To be extra upsetting, Esme was featuring very heavily in her current fantasies.


	20. Chapter 20

**Esme pov**

Esme studied Edward, and she didn't try to hide it. Alice had parked the car and Bella was inside. She could see Edward clench his fist and watched his eyebrows draw together as he stared out the window to see Alice moving around the car to join Bella, who was slowly getting out of it. "You can do this Edward, but if you feel, even for a moment like you can't I want you to leave, to go outside and get fresh air." Esme whispered.

"Come on Bella, you'll love the books I've found." Alice's voice reached them all easily and Esme glanced around the room. Esme and Edward were furthest from the entryway, and Emmett was studying Edward carefully from his spot just at the doorway. He'd insisted that he be there, ready to fight his brother if the need arose and it was hard to see how the family all were carefully placed to keep Bella safe. Rosalie stood at the bottom of the stairs, as if she'd just been coming down them. It was staged, carefully planned and it had better work.

"Is this really worth it." Edward muttered and Esme was sure it was her thoughts he was speaking of. Esme replayed the day she'd helped Bella sand down the dresser, and the way the girl filled some part of her that Esme hadn't even realized wasn't fulfilled already. Esme taught Bella, encouraged her, and it felt wonderful.

Edward just sighed heavily and then held his breath as the front door opened.

Alice was holding Bella's hand, gently leading her into the main room. Esme watched as Bella glanced around the room and her eyes lingered on Esme just a little longer. Bella developed a light blush, and didn't look Esme in the eyes at all.

"Bella, this is my brother Edward." Alice spoke up and Esme glanced to the side to see how Edward was doing. He was going to have to inhale to speak and Esme readied herself in case she had to grab him.

He was frowning and staring, and Esme heard Bella's heart pick up a little as the girl stared at him. "Hello." Bella muttered, quietly, looking so shy and reluctant to even be there. Even as shy as she was in the grocery store when Esme first saw her, she wasn't this bad. She wondered what it was about Edward that was making Bella so nervous, and hoped it wasn't that some part of her sensed the danger.

…

Bella Pov

Bella stared at his eyes to see how bad it was. They were definitely darker than Alice's had been earlier today. He was a good looking boy, the key word being boy, but compared to what the others looked like, Bella didn't think he was anything extra special. He was a Cullen, and had the good looks, but as men went Carlisle was far more attractive, or if someone were interested in more manly built, it was Emmett. Edward also didn't hold a candle to Rosalie's beauty. It was hard to believe that anyone would look at Rosalie and Edward and wonder who was more beautiful, it wasn't a contest he should have ever won. Clearly picking the most attractive Cullen was a matter of taste, other than the obvious advantaged Rosalie had. As Edward opened his mouth she watched eyes go black.

It was hard, very hard, to relax, but she did notice that there were several Cullens between her and Edward tonight. She had to trust that, because panic would certainly make Jasper suspicious. She pushed that traitorous thought away and turned her eyes to take in Esme. Esme, she let her eyes rover over the woman just a bit slower than normal, for once letting what she saw fuel what she was thinking about.

Esme gave her a small smile and Bella gave a weak smile back, as she envisioned Esme in chains, hanging from the strong beams over the main room, sweating and writhing as Bella pounded into her from behind with the largest, thickest, strap on known to man. "Hey Esme." She said, and did her best to ignore the guilt she felt as she continued to envision herself dominating the too sweet woman, forcing her to her knees to service that too thick strap on with her lips and shoving it into her mouth so she couldn't even dream of breathing.

She risked turning to look at Edward now, and he was still giving her that odd studying look. Bella wondered if his mother would be any good at oral, and if she was willing to play doctor with Bella the next time they went out, and yet Edward didn't react. "So, did you like the movie?" Edward managed to speak and Bella gritted her teeth before wondering how her tongue would feel if she licked Esme all over.

"It was very good." She spoke slowly, while wondering if Esme could turn Bella into a screamer.

"That's good." Edward was awkward as hell with speaking, and it appeared to be a little hard for him.

"I'll go get those books." Alice spoke up and Bella turned to see Alice taking the stairs as a kind of slow pace. Bella wouldn't have minded getting out of here a bit faster than Alice was apparently willing to go.

Whips, chains, chocolate pudding, things Edward likely didn't hear every day, and it made Bella embarrassed to even go there in her head like this. Bella thought all sorts of things while just standing in the room awkwardly. "I painted my bedroom." She told Esme. "And put up some shelves." Her face likely had a blush from her thoughts alone, but she focused on Esme harder. She took in the small hint of cleavage Esme had, or the way Esme's fingers caressed her own hand, a slightly nervous gesture.

"That's good dear." Esme didn't come closer, like she normally would. With the thoughts in her head, Bella was glad Esme wasn't getting too close. Bella found she was extra aware of the curves of Esme's body at the moment.

"What color did you paint your walls?" Edward tried again to talk and when he took a step closer a few people shifted in the room, as if tired of being in one position, but Bella found herself standing closer to Emmett.

"Green, sage green actually." She told him. She stared at him a little and started to really think he would have said something or done something if he'd been hearing her thoughts. She might be okay. Even thinking that, a red flag if there was any, had no response from him. She was a little disappointed in how little control she had of her thoughts, but there didn't appear to be any damage done. Finally Bella started to relax. She glanced around her to see that most of the vampires were watching Edward, or pretending to play chess, but looking awfully ready to stand up if needed. Jasper had turned away from his game and was giving her odd looks though. She wasn't sure she could even come up with a cover for her feelings, so Bella just sighed and didn't try. It had felt almost evil turning Esme into a sex object in her mind, not that Esme wasn't sexy, but she should never be treated how Bella was treating her in her mind just to shock Edward.

"Got em." Alice called out and Bella turned to see Alice gracefully coming down the stairs. "Shall we get you home?"

"Sounds good." Bella told Alice, but she also gave Rosalie a small smile and patted Emmett's arm as she went to leave. "Games at my place Friday?"

"Sure thing Bella Bear." Emmett smiled at her. They'd all been rather quiet, it was an odd thing all together. If she'd really just been a friend dropping by she'd be puzzled as hell, but luckily she was the unobservant one, and she could ignore the tension in that room and never say a word about it.

Bella glanced down at the books Alice had handed over as they were starting to drive away from the house. "You'll like those." Alice spoke with confidence. If it were anyone but Alice saying that, she'd feel safe enough to bet money she wouldn't. "So what do you think of Edward?"

They weren't barely passed the tree line. It was probably within vampire hearing. Bella sighed. "He doesn't talk much." Was all she said. She didn't add that she hoped he was always that quiet.

As Alice was dropping her off at the house and Bella felt a little concerned that she was wrong, and that things would fall apart once Alice got back to her place for the family meeting that was so obviously going to happen. "Alice, I had fun tonight." She had to remember it was supposed to be the end of a normal night out, that she wasn't supposed to know about all the drama that was going on.

"It was fun." Alice gave her a small smile, but then she paused and her eyes didn't blink as she stared blankly for a moment. Bella just stared at her for a moment, but then looked away as she realized she was waiting for the vision to end. "I really need to get back to the house." Alice said, but Bella noticed that Alice was staring at her, studying her, as if surprised. "I'll see you later." Bella hoped that was true, but she just nodded and smiled as she got out of the car. It wasn't like she could beg for Alice and the Cullens to not leave, it made no sense in what she was supposed to know.

Bella lied for everyone's safety really. It was difficult at times, and sure, it might be nice to not have to work so hard at not seeing things, but there was so much that could go wrong if she said anything and so Bella kept her vow to never even consider it so that Alice never got a hint of what was going on.

When she got into the house she noticed Charlie was sitting on the couch watching tv. "I'm going to take a shower and get to bed." It was somewhat late, but still not past their 'not a school night' curfew of eleven.

"Bells," Charlie gave her a searching look. "You aren't dating are you?"

"Not this school year Charlie. Probably not next." She told him with a sigh and stopped her trek toward the stairs to face him. "Alice was teasing me, but she's got a boyfriend, and tonight wasn't a date. Just two friends going to a movie."

"Okay Bells." Charlie gave her another searching look and Bella was already tired, but still too tense from the visit to the Cullens, so she wasn't having any fun dealing with this. "You can be whoever you are, so when it comes time to date, you just find a good person Bells. Someone who treats you right." She was touched, and he gave her a small hint of a smile.

"Thanks." She spoke softly. He'd probably spent the entire night thinking about this. It seems like he'd been about ready to give Alice his approval, if that had been real. That was really nice. "I'm really glad I moved here." She told him softly, before moving to go upstairs. In spite of how tired she was, she didn't expect she'd be able to sleep tonight.

…

** Emmett Pov**

Edward stared out the window as Alice drove Bella away and Emmett kept his eyes on Edward as he did that, to make sure he didn't snap and decide to go through the window to get to Bella Bear. Alice drove away without any problems, but Edward continued to stand there. Emmett sighed and shook his head, before moving to the tv, to see if anything good was on. Obviously there would be a meeting, but without Alice, it would wait.

"I couldn't hear her." Edward muttered after about ten minutes and Emmett glanced over at Rosalie, to verify he'd heard that right. His wife's eyes were a little wider and she looked cautious, so maybe he had. "I couldn't hear her at all." Edward's voice was louder and Emmett took a moment before he slowly started to grin. Way to go Bella Bear, he thought in congratulation to his little BFF. He'd never heard of anyone keeping Edward out of their heads.

Edward spun around to glare at him. "No, it's not 'cool'. How am I supposed to figure out when she starts to realize something is wrong with us? How can I make sure she isn't suspicious?" He turned to stare at Carlisle. "How is this possible? I've never been blocked before, never." Carlisle must have thought a question, Emmett hated when they talked with Edward that way. "It was like a fog was around her and I couldn't penetrate it!" His voice rose, but Emmett found himself slowly starting to grin again.

"Could that be a result of her amnesia?" Esme asked and stepped closer to the rest of them.

"No, I don't believe so, if that were the case Alice would be immune as well." Carlisle muttered and then there was a quiet staring contest between Edward and Carlisle, where they'd only say a word or two. It was rather rude. Emmett wanted to hear about his Bella Bear too.

"So you're saying that Bella is immune to Edward's gift." Rosalie spoke up, her voice firm, as she interrupted the mysterious conversation Carlisle and Edward were having. "And you don't have a clue as to why." Emmett gave Rosalie a small grateful smile for interrupting the ping pong conversation that had been going on without them. If anyone deserved to know what was happening with Bella it was him. He was her friend first.

Carlisle turned to them just as the front door opened and Alice slipped into the room. "I can't determine a cause, but the fact that she blocks telepathy is interesting." He turned to Jasper. "Were you able to sense her?"

"I always have been." He said and Emmett smirked as the empath beat the telepath. "She was feeling rather odd tonight though." Jasper frowned and leaned forward in his seat. "The strangest combination of lust, guilt, and disgust I've ever felt." He glanced at Alice. "What were you two up to tonight?"

"Nothing that interesting." Alice muttered and glanced at Edward and Carlisle. Emmett chuckled just a little at her. "While it is different, she's always been a bit different. I don't see that we need to panic."

"I can't read her." Edward hissed, still having a diva fit about someone getting a little privacy for once. Emmett had just finished that thought when Edward glared at him, but before Edward could say anything Alice was talking again.

"I don't see any problems. I don't see her getting suspicious, I don't see her acting oddly, I don't see her causing problems." Alice spoke firmly. "I can watch out for her as well, so can Jasper. We don't need to panic just because she blocks Edward's powers. It isn't like he'll be spending much time with her anyhow. It would have been up to Jasper and I to watch her, it always was going to be."

"This is dangerous." Edward hissed, but Emmett glared at him when he said that. Alice had to be protesting so hard for a reason.

"This is getting a bit more complicated." Carlisle spoke up.

"Because Edward can't read her mind? Come on, she's mentally quiet, not Buffy the Vampire Slayer." Rosalie protested. "Alice can see problems before they happen, if she's willing to work harder on that, then we're still good. I wasn't going to let Edward within twenty feet of Bella, in case you all forgot that she's his singer. We're working hard on ways to keep them apart, to avoid temptation, it wasn't like he was going to be able to monitor her anyhow."

"Well, that is true." Carlisle admitted and Emmett sighed; his angel to the rescue again.

Edward didn't look happy, but he spoke more quietly. "How can she block me?"

"It would take more research." Carlisle muttered. "Perhaps it is a symptom of her condition, there is a chance it has something to do with her being Edward's singer, since he is the only one affected, but it could just be that she has a power, even as a human."

"I pick the coolest BFF's." Emmett muttered, considering that last possible reason. Edward glared at him, but he could hear his Rosie chuckle as she moved to hold him from behind the couch.

"Don't do anything in trying to figure this out that would make us have to leave." Rosalie spoke up. "I'm sure most of us want to finish up our time here." With Bella, Emmett thought to himself and Edward.

"I can handle being around her if Edward isn't there." Jasper spoke up. "His hunger makes it hard to concentrate on what she's feeling."

"Next time I take Bella out, you can join us." Alice said and Emmett watched her move to lean into Jasper gently. "Or you could visit her in the library during lunch, you like libraries."

Emmett grimaced as he didn't need a power to tell that his Bella time was going to be shared even further now, but if he had to share her to keep her, well, he'd just make sure they got to play regularly anyhow.

"That could be a good idea. Perhaps you could find something to do with the girl that I could join you for as well." Carlisle spoke to Esme and Emmett wasn't thrilled with his own 'prediction' coming true. "Seeing her as a Doctor won't be easy, I'll need to gain her trust to get a chance to examine her in more depth. There are some tests I'd like to do, to see if we can pinpoint where her immunity to Edward's gift is really coming from."

"Kids why don't we call this meeting over for now. Carlisle and I are going to go hunting." That was code for she disagreed with Carlisle and didn't want witnesses as she explained to him that no, she wasn't going to help him trick Bella into seeing him as a Doctor. Emmett gave Esme a brief smile of appreciation. Carlisle got a little too intense with any mystery he found and Emmett knew Bella was sick and tired of doctors after the parade of them her mother made her go to. Besides what did it matter why Bella could block Edward? All that mattered was that she could, and Emmett kind of wished his BFF could share on that little talent.

…..


	21. Chapter 21

Bella stood in the doorway of her bedroom, with the plate of tater tots she'd arranged to feed everyone for brunch, simple, easy to hide finger food. It wasn't like the others would complain it wasn't a real meal. She could have cooked something more complicated, but she didn't want it too hard for Rose and Emmett to hide. It was her fault that she didn't wake up early enough to eat before they came over.

She stopped in the doorway, because Rosalie had moved, and Bella just blinked in shock to see the blonde vampire laying on her bed, propped up, reading one of her books. She'd left Rosalie safely in the rocking chair, while her and Emmett played, and now there was a vampire on her bed.

Emmett, thankfully, was so focused on his game he didn't notice that Bella had froze for a moment, but she forced her body back into movement. She had little choice in her room, she pulled the rocking chair closer to the bed and set the plate down on the night table, a hideous thing that was on the list of things to replace. "I'm going to miss Spring Break." Bella mentioned quietly before taking some tater tots and popping them in her mouth.

"This is hardly a decent spring break." Rosalie told her and Bella did her best not to blush while she watched the vampire sit up effortlessly and set the book down so that she could sit cross legged on Bella's bed, facing her. "Last Spring break Alice and I took off for New York and did some shopping."

"So she can get someone to go with her once in a while?" Bella asked, imagining that trip was something that should have been recorded, Alice probably over did everything.

"Once in a while. I enjoy some shopping, but I'm also just as happy to be working on the cars." Rosalie shrugged a little and Bella felt comfortable for a moment with her. Emmett was happily shooting the enemy and Rosalie seemed oddly approachable for a moment, still a goddess, but Bella found herself relaxing a little. "Maybe if we do a trip this summer you can come. You could see New York, or we might go somewhere else, but Alice always plans it to be somewhere special."

"Maybe." Bella gave Rosalie a small hint of a smile. Normally she'd be focused on having to work, or that she couldn't afford it, but by the summer she might have enough money to feed herself on the trip at least and other than airfare she wouldn't be making it more expensive. She didn't need to really buy anything, she could just see the sights and tell the others what she thought looked good on them. Hell, she might even save them money if she could reign Alice in long enough for Bella to have meals at least. It would be hard to shop like that, but if she could just disconnect, not think about the money, it was unlikely she could, but it would be fun to spend that kind of time somewhere different, new, instead of here.

The good news about it, was that Rosalie was making future plans, so apparently her mental shield worked, because there was no way she wouldn't be hearing about a future move if Edward had heard her think about his telepathy. She didn't even want to imagine a conversation about her thoughts about Esme that night.

Rose picked up some tater tots slowly and Bella glanced over at Emmett for her, pretending to watch him play the game a bit more. "Have you thought about any places you'd like to see?" Rose asked after a moment and Bella looked back to see the tater tots were missing.

Bella had created a bucket list of things she wanted to do at one time, years ago, but saving made travel hard. Then at this moment she didn't want to list a bunch of places that Rosalie could never go to because of the sun. "I don't really know." She spoke softly, and Rosalie's expression softened a bit more.

"There is so much to see Bella." Rosalie told her softly. "You should really think about what you want to do with your life, what you want to see." It almost felt like the next part, that wasn't being said was 'so we can do it.' It was just a little shocking, actually, to realize that Rosalie was that invested in making sure Bella lived her life. Bella smiled and nodded and tried not to tear up, her eyes moved to Emmett to see him with the game on pause, just grinning at Bella.

"Tater tots?" She asked Emmett, as if he stopped playing to eat, but the way he looked at her she was tempted to stare at him long enough to force him to put the tater tots in his mouth. He seemed just a little too amused to her.

In just a few minutes Bella found herself sitting on the bed, with Rosalie behind her, braiding her hair. Bella kept feeding herself, but Rosalie's ploy made it easy for the vampires in her room to claim to eat, because Bella was staring at the tv and the mindless 1980's comedy that was on it in the middle of the day, holding her head still for a braid that apparently would look good once they left the house. Rosalie had reached her limit on sitting around while the other two played games.

The phone in the kitchen rang, and Bella tensed for just a moment, before relaxing again. Rose had stopped braiding though. "Aren't you going to get it?"

"It isn't for me." Bella told them. "Emmett's already here."

"No one calls you but Emmett?" Rosalie asked slowly and Bella almost nodded, but the grip Rosalie had on her hair made that impossible.

"Not really, I mean Alice has called, but I think she'd just call your cell phone today if she wanted to reach us." Bella thought she might have heard a hiss.

"You've been here two weeks, starting tomorrow. Your mother hasn't called?" Rosalie asked and Bella thought she could see a frown on Emmett's face.

"Nope, she still doesn't need anything. I'm hoping that Phil will deal with her when it comes time to pay the bills, because I'm not talking her through it." Bella grimaced but the grip on her hair stopped and Rosalie shifted to be in sight. Bella turned a little toward her.

"That woman hasn't talked to you once since she dropped you off at the airport." Rosalie's eyes looked a little darker. Her head shook. "I'm sorry, but she's a lousy excuse of a mother."

"Don't need to apologize. I had that figure out before the doctors handed me off to her to take home." Bella shook her own head. "I'm kind of glad she's stopped trying. I don't like drama queens, and I'm just done with her. Once she calls, it'll be more drama, and she'll want something out of me, and I don't want to deal with it."

"Thank god for Chief Swan." Rosalie muttered and Bella grinned just a little. She actually didn't know if there was a god, but she'd thanked him anyhow a time or two for Charlie. A gentle hand rubbed her shoulder just a time or two and then Rosalie was working on her hair again.

"Well, I'm glad you moved here too Bella Bear." Emmett told her. "You are way too fun to be stuck in Phoenix."

"I couldn't even go outside there." She told Emmett. "I burn in the sun, and looking at my skin, well, I don't think I ever went outside much." She held an arm out as if for evidence. "I'm almost as pale as you, and you're from Alaska." Emmett chuckled. Bella did as well, but it was because she knew very well she was comparing herself to a vampire. He thought she didn't know.

Once her hair was done, Bella looked at it in the mirror. It wasn't a tight braid, thankfully; part of her worried that Rosalie might accidently rip her hair out by the roots, without meaning too, but Rosalie had been very gentle. "Looks good." She told the blonde, and got another soft smile.

Before they left to do something, likely a movie, Bella did bother to check the machine and she groaned when she heard Charlie's voice. "Hey Bells, we've been invited to Billy's house for dinner."

"Oh god, I have to call him back." Bella turned to the vampires in her house. "You were planning to keep me until after dinner right?" She asked, her eyes pleading just a little.

"We could, but why don't you want to go?" Rosalie asked.

"I don't really like going to La Push." Bella grimaced, but she did notice Rosalie tense just a little at her words. "Billy Black's son is not too subtle about the crush he has on me and his sisters aren't home anymore so I imagine Charlie will expect me to 'go play' with the kid."

"Oh, we have plans that might well have you missing curfew." Rosalie told her firmly. "In fact, call and tell your dad you've been invited on a trip to Seattle for the day. It's time you saw it. We'll check out the Seattle Center, and hit some other sites."

"Hell yeah." Emmett grinned. Bella grinned back at him. That was a much better offer.

Bella took up the phone as her vampire friends moved to the living room to pretend to give her privacy. The phone only rang once before the receptionist answered it. "Can I talk with Charlie?" Was all she said and she waited for a little while before he came on the line.

"What's up Bells?"

"I got your message." Bella sighed. "I can't go, I told you I had plans with Emmett and Rosalie today."

"Yeah, but this is later." He sounded just a little puzzled.

"Well, that's the thing." She hated to have to word this as a question. "Rosalie wants us to go to Seattle, I've never been there and she thought it would be fun to check out the Seattle Center and maybe the Piers. I was just about to call you to ask, when I found your message."

"Oh, Seattle. Well, I'm sure that would be more fun." He muttered. "You might want to bring an umbrella though, it's not that great outside. I have one in the coat closet."

"It's so far away, I might need to be a little late with my curfew." Bella blushed, knowing she was being overheard, but she spoke more quietly as if that would help. "I was hoping you'd be a little flexible with it tonight. It's kind of hard to judge the drive and she's never invited me to anything before. I don't want to tell them we have to leave if we're having fun."

"Sure, I get it kiddo. Before you go, take the money out of the food money jar. I'll replace it when I get home." Charlie offered and Bella let out a breath of relief. One more week avoiding La Push and a trip on top of it, that was pretty good.

"Thanks." She smiled as she hung up. It was a little awkward, emptying the jar, but she understood he wanted to feel like the dad and it made sense to her now.

When she went into the living room, Emmett and Rosalie were sitting rather still, waiting. It was just a little wrong, a little too still, but Bella ignored it. "We're set. I got permission to go to Seattle." As if they didn't know. "Thank you so much." She told Rosalie. Bella was pretty sure that the plans with these two were supposed to end before dinner time, so that they wouldn't have to have two pretend meals with her.

"Not a problem Bella Bear." Emmett stood up quickly. "This is gonna be great. You've never been to Seattle, right?" Did he just ask to prove he hadn't heard her say that?

"Nope, never." And that was true in both lives.

Rosalie reminded her to get a coat even as she was moving to do it, and Bella remembered the umbrella, but hoped she wasn't going to need it. If she wanted to do fun things with vampires though, she'd have to get used to doing things in the rain.

Once she was outside she saw that Rosalie had the BMW, and that would make the drive a bit nicer. Emmett took the backseat without giving Bella a chance to take is, so she was in the front passenger side as they took off for Seattle. Bella wasn't even sure how long that drive should take.

…

** Emmett Pov**

Emmett sat in the backseat of Rosalie's car and just watched the action in the front seat. It was a struggle at times not to chuckle at poor Bella Bear. She was doing what she could to stare out the windshield, but her eyes were pulled to the side to look at Rosalie every once in a while. It was clear a battle was going on in her head and it was amusing to see every slip up and the way Bella forced herself to focus on a road she wasn't driving on after every little smile Rosalie gave her while talking about school, or Bella's need for a car, or what they might do in Seattle.

It was also nice to see the conversation getting easier between his wife and his BFF. He'd chosen his BFF on a whim, but he was very proud of the good choice he made. He appreciated how Bella tried to treat Rosalie, to not make her an object to stare at and lust over, and he understood it was hard for her. It was hard for every human with the least little interest in women and clearly his BFF had something in common with Emmett. Rose's beauty was on a level all its own and he'd seen a lot of people just stare or almost drool, if she weren't scowling at the time. He'd once seen a car salesman just stand there staring as Rose tried to ask about a car she wanted to buy, and he didn't even acknowledge Rose was talking. But while he appreciated the effort Bella was making, it was still fun to see her struggle with it.

Something about the small smile Rosalie got whenever Bella looked away made him think his wife appreciated the effort as well.

It was a long drive for a human and things had gotten a little quiet for a while, as Bella stared out the window. It was kind of neat how Bella didn't feel the need to talk and say everything all at once, like he'd heard some humans did.

"Oh, this next exit has a gaming store across from the gas station. How about you fill up there and I'll see if I can find a new game that Bella might like." He spoke very quietly, and Bella didn't even move, so it was out of her range. "I'm going to leave the PS2 at her house over the weekend, since we're going to be out hunting anyhow."

…..

Bella glanced over at Rosalie when she noticed they were taking the exit off the freeway.

"Gas." Rosalie told her and Bella was a little grateful for that. She could use a bathroom break and she hadn't wanted to say that.

As soon as the car stopped at the pump, Emmett was out of the door as if he was going to race to the bathroom as well. "I'll be right back." He told her and then pointed to the gaming store across the street. "I just want to check something."

Bella finished getting out of the car herself, and noticed Rosalie give her a questioning look. "I'm going to see if they have a bathroom." She admitted quietly. She felt a little bad, because that left Rosalie alone pumping the gas while everyone else was rushing off, but it wasn't something she had control over.

She did find a bathroom in the store, and was relieved to have that over with when she stepped out of the store. She paused as she took in the scene in front of her. Rosalie was pumping gas, with a bit of a scowl on her face, and two men who must have the SUV that had pulled up behind them were both out of the car and looking at Rosalie. She couldn't hear what they were saying to each other, it was quiet, but she would bet money that it wasn't polite and Rosalie didn't look pleased at all. It wasn't right that the vampire had to endure people talking about her like she was a sex toy. The looks, the grins, all made it clear that was what was happening next to the SUV.

Bella continued to move forward, but her back was straighter and her jaw clenched just a little. She wanted to do something, but she had no idea what she could do. When she finally got near the car, she moved to stand next to Rosalie, leaning on the BMW and directly in the way of the two men looking at the blonde vampire. She was a poor shield, but she positioned herself as best she could.

Rosalie's eyes were just a hint darker, when the blonde looked up from the pump to stare at her. Bella noticed a little surprise in those eyes, but didn't say or acknowledge it at all. Rosalie's scowl disappeared for just a moment, and her soft smile was all for Bella. Apparently Bella wasn't as smooth as to hide why she wasn't getting back into the car.

The pump stopped and Rosalie put it back and closed up the gas tank. "Let's just drive over and pick up Emmett." The blonde said and Bella nodded. Waiting here was asking for a problem.

Emmett came out of the store just as Rosalie parked in front of it, with some bag in hand, but his smile faded just a little after a moment and he glanced across the street to look at the SUV. Bella wondered at that moment exactly how fast a vampire could tell an entire story, because she'd only be able to say 'we need to leave' in that time and he already knew why.

When Emmett got into the backseat, Bella was a little surprised when he rested a hand on her shoulder for a moment and gave her a little bit too strong of an affectionate squeeze. "Well, let's get going." He said even as Rosalie was pulling out of the parking spot.


	22. Chapter 22

Bella found herself shrieking like a teenager as Emmett lifted her up without any warning and flung her around his back. She hadn't done piggy back since she was so young she didn't even remember it, but he was so large that even if he were human he could do this to her. "God Dammit Emmett." She spoke into his ear, "Everyone is looking at us." And they did have an audience, as they made their way towards the EMP at the Seattle Center. It was only open for two more hours and apparently Bella's little legs weren't going fast enough for the big vampire.

She glanced over Emmett's shoulder to see if Rosalie was going to be any help, but the blonde vampire looked far to amused by the situation, and she was keeping up with Emmett's now longer strides just fine. "They have interactive areas and a lot of history." Emmett was still talking about the place they were going. "And it isn't all music, there is an area for science fiction and fantasy movies." Well, that made it a little more interesting to Bella.

Emmett seemed to carry her halfway through the entire Seattle Center in the rush to get to the EMP. Once they were outside the slightly odd looking building, Rosalie moved up behind Bella and Bella felt cool hands grasp at her waist. She carefully loosened her stranglehold on Emmett with her legs and was helped in guiding her feet back to the ground. "Emmett, why don't you go get us some tickets?" Rosalie told him and the big dork just grinned at them playfully before doing what he was told.

"I swear he is just like a big child sometimes." Rosalie said ,while readjusting the collar on Bella's shirt for her, but the fond smile on Rosalie's lips showed that wasn't a criticism of Emmett. Once Rosalie was done with that Bella ran her hand through her hair to see if that could fix whatever piece of it was just sticking straight out.

The EMP was loud, music everywhere, still Bella found herself smiling a lot at what she saw there, and how Emmett or even Rosalie looked interested in some little thing they'd found to play with. They moved from section to section taking in as much as they could in the two hours they had, and when the place finally closed Bella found herself standing outside the building with the couple wondering what they'd do next. Rosalie supplied the next plan, since Emmett's was the EMP it seemed fair. "Pike's Place Market is opened later." And they were off again. Bella wasn't so surprised when she found herself pulled up onto Emmett's back again as they made their way to the monorail, which apparently was a tourist feature she had to see as well.

"You know, if I don't get to walk under my own power, I'll only get slower over time." She told Emmett as he set her down once they'd reached the monorail line.

"Is that even possible?" He asked with a smug smile and she pretended to growl at him. She could see Rosalie was having fun just watching them. She blushed and waited for the monorail to stop. She did take a few steps away from Emmett and positioned Rosalie between them, so that perhaps she'd get to walk to the Market under her own power.

They had a great time looking at the shops and Bella loved the moment she found a fairy figurine with messy black hair. "I always knew Alice was related to pixies." She said with as straight a face as possible and she enjoyed that it made Rosalie laugh. The vampire also bought that figurine for Alice, so Bella might be paying for that comment later.

They were walking passed a street band, and Bella couldn't even hear herself talking, when her stomach rumbled. She noticed both of the vampires with her glanced down at her and Bella blushed. "I could use some dinner." Emmett said while glancing at Rosalie, as if it wasn't Bella's body that announced the need.

"I have an idea." Rosalie pulled her cell phone out and started talking, but the band was so loud she didn't know who could hear Rosalie at all. The blonde vampire hung up and then they finished making their way away from the noise and towards the monorail again. "Alice is making us a reservation."

"Where?" Emmett asked and Bella could see the lack of enthusiasm, but Rosalie just smiled mysteriously and led them into the building to catch the monorail.

They were only halfway done with the monorail ride when Rosalie glanced at her phone and smiled again. Bella really wondered at what the vampire was planning for dinner, because she could easily go into a food court with them and pretend to be so into people watching that the vampires could hide food quickly, but a sit down restaurant would make being oblivious enough to not see her tablemates weren't eating very hard. "We've got fifteen minutes." Rosalie told them and it was a cruel tease because Bella didn't know what she was getting into.

Rosalie walked with a pace that Bella could match, though it took work, and she found Emmett and herself flanking the woman as they made their way through the Seattle Center again, but they took a turn walked up to the Space Needle. Bella took a moment to stare up at the odd structure. "They have a lovely restaurant up here, with an amazing view." Rosalie said and took a step back to lightly take Bella's arm, while leading her into the base of the Needle.

"Oh, yeah, amazing view." Emmett muttered like he just got it, but Bella had already figured it out. She just needed to impressed with the view and they'd get through dinner just fine.

The prices almost had her wanting to leave, but Rosalie just said she was paying and seeing how proud she seemed of her restaurant idea Bella gritted her teeth and ordered a sixty dollar steak. It was hard to do, but once she got it she found a sixty dollar steak tasted a lot better than a twenty dollar steak.

In this setting, Bella found herself sitting more like the adult she really was, and she noticed the other two doing it as well. The atmosphere was classy, and the pacing seemed to slow as the focus was on just watching the world out the windows. Bella found herself blushing just a little more easily, when she noticed Rosalie gently squeeze Emmett's hand, or him give the blonde an adoring look. She'd almost feel like a third wheel, but they involved her, talked with her, and gave her soft smiles as well and it was weird and still nice. Bella had to remember to stare out the window at times, to give the vampires time to hide their own food, but the view at her table was much more beautiful than what was out that window. In her life, she didn't think she'd ever seen a couple so perfect, and so clearly in love, and to know they'd been together decades and still had that was amazing.

"I think today might be one of the best days of my life." Bella muttered and felt embarrassed as soon as she'd admitted it. She wasn't talking about the few months everyone thought her memory spanned. This was truly a terrific day.

Emmett smirked at her, "Yeah, we do it like that." He teased, but Bella noticed the soft look in Rosalie's eyes as she smiled at her. Rosalie seemed to understand what she meant.

After their dinner they went back to the car and made their way back to Forks. Charlie was awake when she got home, but she could tell he might have fallen asleep for a while. He looked pretty tired as he turned from his place in front of the TV. "Hey Bells. Have fun?"

"It was great." She smiled widely and made her way to the stairs but she stopped before tackling them. "Thanks about the curfew and all." It was nearly midnight. Dinner in the space needle takes a while, and they were hours from Seattle.

"No problem Bells, glad you had fun." He just gave her a hint of a smile and she made her way upstairs. She was tired and needed sleep, but she could feel the soft smile that didn't leave her lips even as she trudged her way up the stairs for bed.

….

On Monday morning Bella found Alice was waiting for her to take her to school, so she didn't need Charlie to do it. While it was subtle, Bella didn't miss that Alice walked her to and from English, dropping her off at her second period class before heading to her own. At first it seemed like she was just too busy talking to split off to her own class, but when Alice met her at the door when she left Algebra to walk her to Art, Bella got the sense she was in protective custody. It was not as reassuring as it could be, that Alice, of all vampires, thought she needed an escort around campus.

To make it a little more odd, when Bella grabbed her bagged lunch and was planning to head to the library to work, Alice, for the first time, joined her, making them detour to her locker for a bagged lunch as well. Another first was that Jasper met them there. In the time since she moved here, Bella had little to do with Jasper, but he slid into the seat across from her at the table she tended to sit at to do her homework during lunch.

Alice took the seat next to him, while giving Bella a slightly wicked smile. "So I heard you let Rosalie and Emmett take you to Seattle." She leaned forward. "So that means you owe me."

Jasper chuckled and his eyes were amused looking when Bella glanced at him for an interpretation of that claim.

"I want to be your BFF as well, and you told me no to going to Seattle." Alice acted a little hurt, but she was clearly acting.

"You wanted to shop until I couldn't walk anymore at stores I don't go into. We didn't shop." Bella shook her head, and did her best to resist smiling at Alice's acting.

"I have a little fairy figurine that says your lying. You shopped." Alice looked like she had Bella over the barrel and her victorious grin was over the top. "So, since you owe me, you're going to go somewhere with Jasper and I."

Bella couldn't help but give Jasper a glance. She was under the impression he wasn't great with humans. "Where?" She asked slowly, looking between both of them a little cautiously. She couldn't see Jasper shopping and didn't know what else Alice would be willing to do.

"There is a car show in Portland next weekend." Alice told her and Bella stared at a moment, wondering if someone had switched bodies with Alice while she wasn't looking.

"Isn't that more Rosalie's thing?" Bella asked slowly and got a chuckle out of Alice.

"She took you to Seattle, when she knew I wanted to. I'm taking you to the car show." Alice smirked.

"I'm buying a vehicle, and needed Alice to drive me there so I could drive it back." Jasper slipped that in, and it made more sense, if you didn't know he could have run there. "I'd really appreciate it if you kept Alice company on the drive back. I don't like the idea of her making that long drive alone."

"Oh," Bella looked over at him. "Of course." It was the normal thing to say, but he was lying. It was a good effort though, it sounded totally legitimate.

"And we can see Portland while Jasper looks at the cars." Alice looked pleased.

"When are we going?" Bella asked.

"Saturday. We need to leave early." Bella's heart sank at those words.

"How early?" She tried, but her voice made it obvious she wasn't thrilled with what she expected to hear.

"We'd like to leave by six in the morning." Alice told her and Bella groaned a little.

"Alice, if you want to be my BFF, don't make a habit of asking for that." She shook her head and sighed. "Okay, six. Don't expect me to make much sense for the first two hours, but I'm in." If this were real, she did care enough about Alice to want to keep her company on a trip like this, and if Alice were human it wasn't a good idea for her to be alone for that drive. This was all about maintaining the lies though and Bella wasn't thrilled at the moment that it was going to cost her sleep.

"Alright." Alice beamed at her and it helped to improve Bella's mood just a little.

The week showed Bella what her new routine would be with Edward around. She only once saw him in the halls and he had Rosalie with him at the time. They didn't come to see her, and she took that as a hint not to go see them. Bella found she was escorted around a bit more by Alice, or Emmett, or even Rosalie, but she wasn't always with one of them, it was just more often. If Charlie drove her to school, Alice was always conveniently right there when she got there, or Alice would pick her up at the house in Rosalie's car. Rosalie would then drive her home in that same car at the end of the school day. Charlie was always happy to see Bella's friends helping her out. He had no idea how much help they were really being.

When Charlie was dropping her off for school on Friday, he decided to throw a wrench into her plans of the night. "Tonight the Blacks are coming over for dinner and some games on the tv."

"You do know I'm waking up obscenely early in the morning right?" Bella asked, but she knew she wasn't winning this one. It was at her house.

"You can go to bed whenever you need to, but I invited them last week, before you made your plans." Charlie told her and Bella resisted the urge to say she wished she'd known about that.

"Jacob looks at me like he has a crush." Bella spoke more softly, not getting out of the car right away. Alice was waiting, so she was probably hearing all of this. "Do me a favor and don't 'send us off to play' or anything. He's too young and doesn't even know how to pretend to be subtle. I don't like sports and now I can't go watch something else in my room, because I'm not inviting the boy into my bedroom."

"Oh." Charlie looked a little surprised by her words. "Um, maybe you could invite Alice or Rosalie over."

"I like them, I can't do that to them." Bella knew it would be a disaster if she had Billy Black and any Cullen in the same house, but she wasn't supposed to know that yet. "I don't want to invite them over just so a teenage boy can drool over them instead of me."

"I'm sorry Bells. I didn't know." Charlie frowned, "but it can't be too bad to just be nice and not encourage him."

"Boys are stupid about crushes. Being nice is encouraging them." Bella sighed heavily and then opened the door. "Well, we'll deal but we need to figure something out for the future. I don't want you to not have your friends over, that would be ridiculous. I just need to find a way to avoid things getting awkward." She looked at him for a moment.

"I'm glad you're being so mature about this Bells." Charlie told her and she just nodded and got out. "Maybe I could ground you and you have to stay in your room?" He gave her a weak smile with that weak joke.

"Sounds tempting, if you can come up with a good reason I might take it." She gave him a weak smile in return and closed the door. Jacob was a character she'd liked in the books, but here, in person, she didn't want to deal with him getting territorial or thinking anything could happen with her. Bella was firmly on the Cullen side in their little 'feud'. She found the prejudice of the Quileute's a little disgusting, they didn't even try to listen or pay attention, and they just lumped all vampires into one big evil lump. If the fact that all of Bella's friends were Cullens came up tonight Billy Black was going to be seriously unpleasant.

"Are you okay?" Alice asked her once Bella got to the sidewalk, and Bella gave her a small smile.

"Sure, I'm fine." She did like how Alice took her hand and held it for a moment, before leading them to class. This time, Alice knew she was lying.

…..


	23. Chapter 23

"So you looked a little upset when your dad was dropping you off." Alice spoke softly and Bella lowered her pencil. They were doing quick sketches to warm up the 'inner artist' in Art class, which Bella thought meant the art teacher came to work too late to set up a scene to sketch, so they were using each other.

She started to move her pencil again and sighed. "My dad's best friend has a son that is a little too interested in me." She stared at the wild hair on the page, and tried to flesh it out a bit more with her pencil. "I can't blast him out of the water like I did Mike, because of how close Charlie is to them, and I'm just at a loss as to how to get him to realize it is never going to happen."

"Because you prefer women." Alice leaned in and whispered.

"Well, partly, but also he's just a kid." Bella found herself blushing, because Alice made sure they weren't overheard by whispered into her ear very softly.

"Did your dad have a problem when you came home after we went to the movies?" Alice asked for the first time.

"No," Bella grinned and looked up. "I think he was about to tell me you were a lovely girl, when I told him you already were taken."

Alice smiled, "Well, tell him thank you." She then faded out, her eyes not blinking, and Bella moved her pencil quickly to get her eyes while it was easier. "So have you considered making it very clear that you would not be interested?"

"I can't figure out a 'polite and nice' way to do it." Bella said and just set her pencil down on the table. "That's the problem, I can't just avoid him, he's always going to be there, and I've heard he is a pretty nice guy, but I just foresee so many problems if he thinks there is a chance."

Alice smirked at her, "Psychic now?"

"Some things anyone could see coming." Bella managed, and it was hard not to blush, knowing she wasn't psychic, but she did have some forewarning. It wasn't a conversation she could have with Alice, and one she kind of wished she could.

Alice leaned in to her again and whispered into her ear, "Why don't you just become very, very gay?" She leaned back and raised an eyebrow at Bella. She whispered while right in front of Bella. "Nearly nude pictures on your walls, video games on your tv, and an incriminating photo on your night table of you and someone undeniably female? Stories that make it clear."

"Nice idea," Bella frowned, because it sounded like a horrible idea, "but I don't have any of that and they are coming over tonight."

Alice tugged out her phone and started texting. "It'll work." She told Bella and Bella let out a breath of air and a soft smile. A simple 'it'll work' from Alice held a lot of weight. "Okay, Emmett's going to get you some art for your walls during lunch." Bella blushed, because she was sure he laughed when he got that text and was going to go overboard.

"Tell him Charlie needs to see this room too." Bella warned quickly and glanced around. She was a little grateful that they were a little off on their own in the room and others were focused on their art. Alice kept texting.

"Instead of having lunch in the cafeteria, I'm going to show you the photo lab." Alice didn't even look up from texting. "We'll have a few pictures that make it clear by the end of the day."

Bella was completely lost on what Alice was saying, but if Alice thought this would fix her problem she'd do it. "Okay."

"He'll bring the PS2 over as well. No point in decorating if no one will see it." Alice smirked. "Don't hold back, clobber the kid. Emmett's going to bring the game you beat him on." Well, there was only one game she'd managed that on, Bella started to smirk. She was seeing what Alice had in mind a bit now and it was perfect. It left out any confrontation at all. She was going to be 'one of the guys', and Jacob would never be able to think of her as anything else.

Lunch was directly after Art and Alice tugged her in a new direction after they had their sack lunches. "Jasper, we need these ready by tonight." Alice said as they stepped into the room and Bella found out that Rosalie and Jasper had this class right before lunch, or at least they were both there.

"Let's set up in the corner." He told them and pulled a camera out. Alice tugged Bella over and Bella still felt a bit confused about what they were doing.

"We don't really want your face in this." Alice spoke to Rosalie and then Bella found herself standing in the corner with Rosalie next to her.

"What are we doing?" Bella finally needed some answers.

"Well, Jasper is going to take pictures with you and Rose, and make it look like you're dating. It will be hard to tell who she is, so you can claim she's the one you left behind in Phoenix or something." Alice smirked and then reached out to fix something about Bella's hair.

Bella's eyes widened and Rosalie actually giggled at her. "I'm a little too recognizable, with the fashionable hair and petite size." Alice smirked and Bella couldn't help but blush at the teasing she could see in Alice's eyes.

The photo shoot was fast, and awkward. Bella found herself far closer to the blonde than was proper with her friend's wife and she struggled to not let it affect her, because there was an empath in the room taking their pictures. Rosalie's scent was everywhere, so even when Bella couldn't see her, because she was too damned close, she could smell her.

Rosalie gently touched her, resting hands on shoulders, or on Bella's waist, as they moved around, trying to do what Alice suggested. Hug, lean in, laugh, sex eyes, where the hell did Alice get a command like sex eyes?

"This isn't surgery, stop frowning." Alice would mutter at times, or "Your as stiff as a tree, you're supposed to be having fun." Finally, Alice threw her hands in the air and muttered, "Jasper, do something."

Bella noticed her tension ease after that and wondered if it was Jasper, doing something. He was taking pictures and Rosalie was having fun being the 'mystery woman' as it was mostly her back being shot, but Bella had to give her adoring looks. She started to really feel touched that all these vampires were doing this for her, trying to give her a comfortable way out of an uncomfortable situation and Rosalie didn't even blink at being in these pictures. Bella had just gotten used to Alice's hanging on her arm in the halls, or the new way Emmett would sling her around at times in Seattle, and now Rosalie was caressing her for the camera, her hair, her neck, her waist, and it was odd and her touch was cool, but Bella found her 'sex eyes' look felt a little too real, 'adoring eyes' as well. Alice seemed happier with her performance and Bella started to feel it was getting too real. She really hoped it was Jasper's fault.

"And we're done." He said and grinned at them. "I'll process these and have them to you, complete with fake romantic background in plenty of time." Bella stepped back from Rosalie quickly and gave her a weak thanks and smile. Thankfully lunch was almost over and she could focus on eating quickly. After all that there was just enough time to stuff her face and go with Rosalie to Biology.

Emmett chuckled during class and gave her his teasing sexy looks a few times during class, even after Rosalie hit him in the stomach with her elbow. Bella didn't even call him an ass for it; she was still a little shook up by the whole thing.

…..

She just stared at the room and took a deep breath. It was horrific, nothing like she wanted her room to be like. There was a new calendar on the wall and the most the women in it wore was a bikini and short shorts, and that was the most. She had framed 'art' of women, one of which was kind of nice, but the others were too trashy. She found a collection of 'magazines' in the bag Emmett had handed over as well and didn't even know what to do with those. They sat on her desk, spread out as if it were on a nicely laid out coffee table.

"Wow Bells." Charlie muttered as he stepped into the room. "This is your plan?"

"It sure as hell isn't my idea of decorating." She blushed and turned to see him studying the calendar. "Did you want that after I'm done with it?" She managed to smirk as she made him as uncomfortable as she was.

"Who's the blonde?" He asked as he noticed the obvious 8x10 picture on the night table. She'd been given a selection and she kind of wanted to keep this one after it was all done. Rose was wrapped around her, a hint of the side of her face was showing, and Bella had sex eyes and confidence. That was photoshop magic as far as she was concerned, because she'd been nowhere near confident during the entire thing. It was weird, when Bella noticed she was starting to think of that face as her own now. In the beginning it was jarring whenever she saw it, but now it felt more like hers. She guessed that was a good thing.

"Emmett's girlfriend, Rosalie." Bella muttered and Charlie gave her a double take. "I might have mentioned I wanted to keep Jacob from getting ideas and suddenly Alice had her boyfriend and Rose doing a photo shoot with me. I'm supposed to claim she's 'the one that got away in Phoenix.' "

"Wow, this is really elaborate Bells." Charlie glanced around the room at the new art again.

"Billy's your friend." Bella turned to look at him. "I know how to crush boys' hopes, but I don't know how to do it nicely. This was the best I could come up with." Or she couldn't do better than Alice's plan, same thing right?

"Well, given your room." Charlie's face and neck went a little red and he rubbed the back of his neck with his hand. "I guess I don't have to worry about you bringing home boys when I'm at work?"

"It's unlikely." Was all she said as she sat back down on her bed. Men were not impossible, just unlikely, but they were talking boys and boys, never.

"Okay then." Was all he said and he gave her a small reassuring smile, before he looked around again. "You don't like this for your room though?"

"No, well, maybe that one." She pointed at the classier piece on her wall. "But everything else is going as soon as it's safe."

"I really appreciate what you're doing here Bells." Charlie spoke quietly. "I think you're a little overboard, but I appreciate it."

"I am taking Jacob up here and I'm going to kick his butt on video games, talk about girls, and hopefully send him out of here thinking I'm just one of the boys. Wish me luck." She smirked.

"You're not 'one of the boys' though, are you Bells?" Charlie asked hesitantly.

"No, not really," Her smile softened as she looked at him. "I like being a girl just fine." She glanced around her room. "I mean, they are much prettier."

"That's true." He nodded, and let out a breath he'd probably been holding. "I'll go order the pizza. Billy and Jacob should be here soon."

…..

** Emmett Pov**

"This is priceless." Emmett chuckled as he sat in the tree just outside of Bella's backyard. The woods conveniently went all the way to her backyard and he'd made his way through them to sit here and see how hilarious the night was. He'd rather be able to see, but this was going to have to do. He still didn't want to miss it. Bella bear just had to tell her dad she wasn't a man trapped in a woman's body and he took a little while to stop chuckling after she dealt with that.

"I thought I'd find you here." He heard his wife's voice and looked down to see her staring up at him in the tree, her arms crossed. Her legs bent a little and she leapt up to grab the branch across from his and swung up to stand just on the other side of the large trunk from him.

A beat up old red truck pulled up in front of the house, and from the spot in the trees, Emmett could see it. "So that's the young Casanova?" He smirked as he saw the boy getting out of the driver's side door.

"That man he's helping out of the truck is one of those Quileute elders." Rosalie muttered and he glanced over at her to see she wasn't smiling as she watched those two head up to Bella's front door. "I don't like that she is so close to them."

"They aren't allowed to tell her anything." Emmett reassured Rosalie, but he watched with a little more concern than he'd had earlier as the Quileute's were greeted by Charlie and let into the house.

Rosalie lowered herself to sit on the branch and Emmett followed suit on his side. "Bells, Billy and Jacob are here." They could hear Charlie yell out.

"I saw some of the photos." Emmett spoke quietly while the hellos were being spoken in the house. "Jazz showed me. I think I want to frame some of them and put them in the bedroom. Hot, very hot." He smirked at her.

"She needed a fake girlfriend." Rosalie leaned against the tree trunk. "And are you honestly telling me that you want pictures of your BFF on our walls so you can drool over them?"

Emmett paused and gave her a studying look. "You're in them too dear." He gave her a smirk. "Any pictures with you all over a girl sound like art to me."

"Pig." She shook her head, but he did notice the hint of a smile on her lips. "Alice was mad at her because she wouldn't touch me at first, she just stood there with the cutest deer in headlights expression."

He studied her expression and came to the conclusion Rose had been impressed yet again with Bella. He knew Rose didn't touch humans, didn't flirt with them, and still those that didn't fear her were either painfully jealous or stupidly optimistic about their chances. The fact that Bella was neither was something Rose valued. His voice became more serious. "She likes you." And he meant it in two ways. Jasper had thought to tell him, but Emmett wasn't as stupid as some people tended to think. He knew his Bella Bear was impressed with his wife. He'd also been told that Bella felt painfully guilty about that, and she'd been hard to get to relax for the pictures.

Rose shook her head and grinned. "She also likes Alice and Esme." Rose told him and he raised an eyebrow at the last name. "Or didn't you catch who she'd been looking at when she came to the house that made Jasper report on her lust and guilt?"

Emmett thought about it a moment and did remember some strange looks that Bella gave Esme that night. He chuckled at the thought of telling Esme she was fueling fantasies. "Poor Bella Bear, she really has a thing for the unattainable." He'd only heard of a few vampires that could even have sex with a human, and still Bella fixated on the married ones. Esme wasn't likely to give his BFF a ride, but even if she'd wanted to Esme wasn't likely to be able. She didn't even get as much exposure to humans as Emmett did and he knew he wouldn't be able to. He had a short list of 'accidents' that showed his self control was nowhere near that good, and there was no sex involved in those. He considered that. "I don't even know how Tanya and her sisters manage."

"They don't let themselves get lost in the moment." Rosalie spoke quietly. "I asked once. They make it a bit more about making their human fling of the night let loose, but they don't ever really have a 'great night' themselves, unless they don't mind the man dying." It was no secret that the Denali sisters used to be human drinkers.

"Why bother." Emmett muttered as he considered that.

"They don't have mates of their own Emmett, and let's face it, vampires that don't scoff at our diet are rare. Tanya makes do with what she can." Rosalie defended her friend and Emmett just nodded, but still, he couldn't imagine having sex and trying NOT to have a 'great time'.

"Poor luck that the vampires that ended up with that extra little succubus gene are single." Emmett chuckled, even though it was poor luck it was kind of funny too. The Denali's might be the only succubi in North America.

They'd gotten a little off track and Emmett wanted to talk a bit more about his BFFs taste, as clearly she did have good taste, other than the never could happen aspect, but he paused on that. Anyone else thinking about his wife in a serious way and he'd make a big show of teaching them his Rosie was off limits, but Bella Bear was too cute when she got flustered. He decided that there was no harm in letting his BFF dream about it. If he could sleep, he might dream about it, the idea was hot after all. His Rosie going all tender and careful with the human, and ushering her into womanhood, it was hot. He knew better than to say that though, he'd be cut off for weeks.

…..


	24. Chapter 24

**Emmett Pov**

It was easy enough to hear what was going on in the house, but Emmett really was disappointed they couldn't see it too. "Hello Bella," Billy Black spoke up as Bella got downstairs. "Good to see you again. How's living with this big lug going?"

"This is boring, when is she going upstairs with the kid?" Emmett sighed heavily as the hellos continued inside.

"This isn't a tv show, there is no fast forward." Rosalie told him, and he glanced over at her rather than continue to just stare at the house.

"So how is the new school?" Billy Black was still asking questions.

"It's okay, better than Phoenix anyway." Bella said and Emmett grinned, glad she'd gotten out of that school.

"Bella has a good group of friends and from what I hear she's way better at school than her old man was." Charlie added, since Bella wasn't saying much.

"It's not actually hard." Bella muttered and Emmett chuckled.

"Sounds like Bella is as bored in class as we are." He turned to look at Rosalie when he said that. She still looked a little tense. "What is it?" He spoke more softly.

"I don't like them around her." Rosalie managed. "If he breaks that damned treaty I'm going fold that piece of shit truck around him so tight the jaws of life and all night won't be enough to get him out."

Emmett moved to stand on her branch and wrapped an arm around her, while glancing at that truck Rosalie was talking about. "It'll be okay. He won't want to break that treaty, they're all so nervous about us doing it, he won't want to make it void."

"Sometimes the Forks kids come to La Push," A younger male voice spoke up, so that must be Jacob. Emmett held Rosalie gently and listened in. "Who are your friends?" Rosalie tensed just a little.

Bella was taking a bit too long to answer and Emmett grimaced, as he could tell Rosalie expected trouble. "Emmett, Alice, Rosalie, those are the people I hang out with the most." Bella spoke in such a way Emmett could imagine a careless shrug after her words. It didn't make him feel the love. They were the only people she hung out with.

"What's their last name?" The old man spoke and Rosalie hissed quietly. He hugged her a little tighter.

"Hale, well, and Cullen." Bella added and there was silence.

"Cullen?" The old man didn't sound happy at all.

"Now, Billy, none of that." Charlie spoke up. "Those kids never cause any trouble and they've been real good friends for Bella."

"Sounds like he's barely keeping with the treaty, if Chief Swan already knows this is trouble." Rosalie muttered.

"Those Cullens are dangerous." Billy Black spoke, and Emmett glared at the wall between them and the room Bella was sitting in.

"So you don't like them?" Bella spoke slowly, firmly.

"No, they aren't good friends to have, Bella." Billy spoke quickly.

"Okay, so I guess I won't introduce you to them. Let me tell you this," Here Emmett started to grin a little as Bella hissed out the last word, a hint that she was not pleased. "I make my own decisions about the people I chose to hang out with. I like them. I want you to think about that, and any time you feel like telling me that my friends aren't worth being my friends, keep it to yourself. I know how you feel now, no need to repeat it."

"I see." Billy Black sure didn't sound pleased.

"I'm going to go play some video games. Enjoy the baseball game." Bella's chair made a sound as it was moved.

"She's," Rosalie stopped speaking and Emmett looked down into her eyes. They were a little blacker, showing she'd been upset. "She's good."

"Yeah, won't take much tutoring to make her a real bitch on wheels, will it." Emmett teased. His Rosalie could hold the title in that at times.

"Hey, Bells, I'm sorry about what my dad said." The young boy sounded like he'd followed her. "It's silly, some stories,"

"I don't want to hear it." Bella sighed. "So baseball game or video games, what you want?"  
>"Right now, I think I'll take the video games." The boy sounded so upbeat, like he was getting an in. Emmett glanced at the house and the tree in the front yard.<p>

Emmett glanced at the house again. "I bet we might be able to actually see into her room from the tree out front." He had to move quick though, because Bella was bringing the boy upstairs. "Come on." He grinned and leapt down from the tree they'd started in. It was already dark, so it wasn't hard at all to make it across Bella's yard so he could get up and get some view of the action.

"We might want to warn her that the tree gives such a good view of her room." Rosalie spoke up when she finally got up next to him.

"Oh yeah, I can see that conversation, 'Bella, I'm concerned, when I was spying on you the other night I saw how very easy a peeping tom would have it if they decided to watch you. I mean you didn't even see me, you'd never see a pervert.'" Emmett chuckled as Rosalie huffed at him. He settled into the branches and relaxed as he waited. "Next time the weathers bad, I might come and break a branch or two." He told Rosalie quietly, he could make it so humans couldn't really climb this tree, just a little muscle was needed, but the door was opening and he waited with a grin to see the boy's face when he finally got a good look at the pictures Emmett picked out.

They could hear Charlie laying down the law about bothering Bella about her friends again and Emmett liked that her BFF's dad was on their side. There was no way he'd want Bella banned from seeing them. It was bad enough they were limited because of Edward.

…

** Bella Pov**

Bella had hoped to avoid a confrontation about her being friends with the Cullens, but her luck didn't hold out. Hopefully Billy didn't cause trouble. At least she did have a way to leave him behind, the old man wouldn't be able to come upstairs. Jacob was following her, but he was a little subdued. Bella figured it was because she'd gotten into it with his father a little. She had to though, she had to keep anyone from saying too much. It was a struggle to remain ignorant, officially.

She opened the door and stepped inside. She didn't look around, instead she moved to stand in front of the tv and watched Jacob as she turned it, and the PS2 on. The boy was smiling and friendly, almost puppyish, in how he bounced back from the embarrassing scene downstairs. When she was his age she would have had a much harder time shrugging that off. As he came in he glanced around the room like everyone does when they go to a new place, his eyes taking in the larger things.

She had a controller in her hand to hand to him when she saw him actually register what she had on the walls. His eyes widened and his permanent grin faded, but his jaw dropped open a little in it's place. "Ah, nice room." He muttered.

She glanced around and took in all the things that really kept it from being that, and when she turned back to him she saw him studying the magazines on her dresser. "Oh, Charlie's great about letting me decorate however I want." Bella did her best to try and smile. "So I only have one game. I borrowed the system from Emmett."

"That's fine." He gave an awkward looking smile back and took the controller. They had to sit on the bed to do this, but luckily it was roomy enough they didn't have to get close. Bella had the bed set on the wall so it could double as a couch for the tv, long way facing it. Bella started through the menu, but she wondered if she should be talking about her decorations instead.

"My favorite piece is the one in the corner." She grinned and pointed out the woman in a black teddy. She had bedroom eyes, or maybe that was what Alice meant by sex eyes, but she also had an element of class.

"Yeah, that's nice." Jacob sounded a little hesitant. She started up the game and she was battling her own indecision of what to do next just as hard as she fought in that game. Jacob solved that for her. "So, what's up with all the women on the walls?"

"Oh," Bella glanced around as if it weren't anything she ever thought of much. "I like women." She then proceeded to beat Jacob's character bloody. It was kind of against her nature, to destroy him when he was just learning the game, but Alice said to do it. She didn't coddle him and explain the game, she didn't give him a chance to learn to fight back, she just destroyed him.

"Hell, yeah," She borrowed Emmett's gaming words as she hit Jacob's character for the last time. It feel fast. "That's what I'm talking about."

"You're good at this." Jacob said as she turned to look at the boy. He didn't look scandalized to have lost to her, which was a good thing actually. Some boys might not take that well. "So, you're like gay?" He asked slowly, as if unsure he should even ask it.

"Oh yeah." She looked over at him with a grin. "So, did you want to continue to play, or are you going to go back downstairs with your tail between your legs because I beat you so bad?"

He gave her a hint of a smile. "I think I can take your beating." His eyes were still friendly, but not overly friendly, that sense of creepy crush was smaller. Bella was glad to see it might actually work. Obviously more might need to be done, but they started up the game again and this time Jacob was trying much harder.

…..

** Emmett Pov**

Bella and Jacob had gone downstairs to get pizza when it arrived, but they were quickly back up in her room with plates in their hands. Emmett thought that at least that meant Bella wasn't near Billy Black. He wasn't as okay with her seeing her dad's friends after the old man had started something with Bella because she was so awesome as to be able to be friends with vampires.

"So you like girls?" Jacob spoke quieter and Emmett rolled his eyes.

"Idiot." Rosalie muttered and Emmett gave her a small grin.

"Any girls in particular?" Jacob asked and there was a little bit of amusement in his voice. Emmett chuckled a little as he wondered if Bella Bear would admit she was a Cullen fan.

"I've been here three weeks." Bella sighed heavily, and acted like that was an answer.

"Note to self, Bella lies, she's a liar." Emmett grinned and ignored the elbow that Rosalie hit him with.

"Actually, she didn't lie." Rosalie defended her, "she just doesn't want to tell that wanna be dog her business."

"So, who's that?" Jacob spoke and Emmett leaned forward a little to see the boy had noticed the picture of his Rosie. He could also see Bella freeze for a moment, and he frowned. Bella bear didn't have a lie ready? She knew this was coming.

"Lillian." Was the name Bella dragged out of the air, and since Emmett was watching her and Jacob wasn't, he could tell she'd made that up on the spot. Rosalie gasped and he watched the human girl more carefully.

"Just Lillian?" Jacob made Rosalie's middle name a song.

"Uh, Lillian Branden." Bella made a face, as if disgusted with her choice of a name, while Jacob moved to the side of her bed and picked up the picture to study it. Emmett found it really strange that Bella guessed Rosalie's middle name. "We dated for a little while in Phoenix."

"You tapped that, her body looks fine. Too bad we can't see her face here." Jacob spoke a little louder, sounding impressed and Emmett chuckled.

"I didn't 'tap' anything you god damned dog." Bella scolded him and Rosalie had to hold onto Emmett, because he was laughing. "I dated her, as in we went out a bit."

"She's defending you, even when it isn't supposed to be you." Emmett said and turned with a smile to look at Rose, but his smile faded to something sweeter when he saw her eyes. Rosalie was once again impressed with Emmett's Bella Bear. "I better watch out or that human's going to steal my girl right out from under my nose." He teased quietly.

"Oh shush." Rosalie told him, with a hint of a smile, and then focused on the room, where story time was about to start.

"She was a senior," Bella started.

Emmett chuckled. "She's making you older."

"That's not actually possible." Rosalie muttered and then shushed him again.

"and the only good thing about Phoenix High." Bella's voice held her irritation well, it almost sounded real. "When I ate in the library she'd visit me. In class she moved to have the seat next to me." Emmett stopped his teasing smile and started to really listen to Bella, because she sounded real now. "You can't see it all here, but she's gorgeous. I expected she'd be a bitch, you know, like gorgeous people sometimes are, but she has a heart of gold. She has the trifecta, beauty, brains, and personality. It really wasn't fair. I didn't have a chance."

"So you did ask her out?" Jacob filled in a quiet moment.

"I did manage that, and we had a great time. I never had a better time, and she planned it all." Bella grinned, and it was a sad smile, which Emmett didn't really like. "Romantic dinner, museum, shopping, I think it'll be a long time before I have a date that good again."

"What happened?" The boy asked gently and Emmett found himself wanting to know as well. It sounded like a sad story. He didn't like it. He'd been expecting bragging about getting 'some of that' and widely exaggerated stories about her stamina. Rosalie practically gave Bella permission to claim she'd 'tapped that', and still Bella wasn't.

"Ah," Bella's voice was a little stronger and she shook her head. "Well, I was good, but Emma was better."

"I think you're Emma." Rosalie whispered to him, but he knew it, it was actually the name Jasper would tease him with when they wrestled. Bella took their day out in Seattle and turned it into the fictional date, in fact a lot of what this Lillian did was really Rosalie. Bella was taking using Rose as her fake girlfriend seriously and using it all.

"Shit." Jacob muttered.

"Yeah, so I'm not gonna be dating for a little while." Bella let out a heavy breath.

"Brilliant." Rosalie whispered and Emmett turned to see his wife staring at Bella as if she were giving the performance of a lifetime. He almost expected slow, heartfelt, applause.

"Girls can rip hearts out." Jacob muttered. "Ever think?"

"What?" Bella looked over at him and away from the photo.

"Well, did you ever think it might be easier with a guy?"

"Idiot." Rosalie growled.

"Well, not really. Think about this, pick a guy you get along with that looks okay. Now imagine being in a relationship with him." Bella told him this as if it were some sort of meditation imagery. "Are you feeling all warm and fuzzy?"

"Ugh." Jacob gave her an odd look.

"Yeah, that's what I think." Bella told him. "Now would that be easier?"

"No, not at all. I can barely keep my pizza down." Jacob told him.

"Totally exaggerating." Rosalie whispered her opinion.

"I'm patient, I can wait for something real." Bella spoke and it sounded just a little more hopeful. Hopefully his Bella Bear wouldn't have to wait for long. Emmett knew he'd been lucky enough to find his mate right after being turned, very lucky, because he knew vampires that were waiting a hundred, even a thousand years, for that connection.

"I really lucked out when you found me." Emmett spoke softly as he turned to look at his Angel. She gave him a soft smile, but when she looked back at Bella Emmett could see Rosalie was a little troubled. Her eyebrows were just a little closer, her lips turned down just a hint.

"I think I can beat you if we play another round." Jacob spoke up and the story time ended.

"Do you think it was just a story, or are we really hurting her?" Rosalie asked quietly while they sat and watched the video game going on.

"I think Bella knows how lucky I am," Emmett spoke seriously, because Rosalie looked worried, "and Jasper talks about lust and guilt, but he never says anything about jealousy. Even if she could go there, Bella isn't letting herself and I think that means she's just fine." He grinned a little. "So maybe she might have a few x-rated fantasies about you and maybe it's a full cast with Esme and Alice too, but she knows what's real and what isn't."

…..


	25. Chapter 25

Bella packed a few breakfast bars into her purse, and a bottle of water. She also attempted to eat, but it was a little hard to do with her eyes closing on her against her will. "Damn baseball." She muttered. She'd attempted to go to bed early, but every time she was about to fall asleep the men in the living room would cheer at something. It felt like it lasted forever.

"I hope she buzzes the damned doorbell." She muttered as she considered a little harmless vengeance on Charlie. Still, he'd get to go back to bed, but for one panicked moment his heart would be in his throat. Still, when she saw Rosalie's BMW stop in front of the house, Bella got up and put the bowl in the sink, before dragging herself out the door, before Alice had to come get her. It was daylight, somewhat, that was news. Bella didn't know the sun was up at six around here.

The air was cold, and Bella felt the chill, but it didn't manage to wake her up any more than she was. She felt disconnected and a little like her feet weren't actually hitting the ground as she made her way to the BMW. Rosalie shared her car almost half of the time as far as Bella could tell. "Hey." She managed as Alice stepped out of the car to greet her. Alice looked bright and cheerful and it didn't improve Bella's mood, because it just said that she wasn't going to get to fall asleep in the back seat.

"Oh, wow, you really are out of it." Alice studied her like she'd never seen a tired human before and Bella just sighed heavily and grabbed the door to the back seat.

"How long will this drive take?" She asked as she settled in. Alice slipped back into the passenger seat and turned to look back at her. "Oh, Hey Jasper."

Jasper chuckled. "Hey Darlin'. I'm planning on being there for the opening at 9am."

"Where we going?" Bella asked. She knew Portland, she spent a few years living just outside of it. It turned out the auto show was where she thought it might be.

…

** Jasper Pov**

Jasper glanced at the rearview mirror to confirm the quietness he was feeling and he smirked as he glanced over at his pouting wife. "Sleeping like a babe."

"I wanted you to get to know her." Alice sighed and glanced back at the little human. "I'd hoped that my vision was wrong, that she'd wake up more when we got moving."

"Well, now we know, she's not good with early trips." Jasper focused on Hwy 101 for a while, and considered the disappointment he could feel from Alice. He didn't care for that, but the human girl was sluggish at best until she fell asleep, and wasn't that something. The human fell asleep in the car with vampires. Perhaps Alice, he could see that, but no human had ever been that relaxed around him before unless he caused it. He looked back at her again, to see her head tilted back, and her eyes closed. Her body rocked gently with the soft rocking of the car. He could see the pulse in her neck and the slow steady beat of her heart was nearly visible to his vampire eyes. "She's definitely unusual." He managed, before he focused on the road again.

"She's special." Alice spoke softer, as if protecting her words from being overheard even with the human sleeping. "I've had visions of her, and she's meant to be my friend. I love her already." And he knew she did. He could feel the affection his wife had for the human, and he'd gone against his own instincts to vote that they should be allowed to be near Bella because of that.

"I think she is your friend Alice." Jasper told his wife. "She agreed to this trip, and missing sleep in her warm bed for you, even though you have no idea how irritated she was feeling when she did it."

Alice smiled for a moment, but then she looked back at Bella again. "I know she's my friend, but she's going to be much more than this. Our bond is going to grow, and I can't wait." Jasper could feel the happy anticipation in his wife and it couldn't help but make him smile.

"Bonds are more my business Darlin' and they take time, if you want it to be real, they take time." Jasper knew his wife wasn't the most patient person in the world, and how could she be? She knew where things were going long before anyone else did and she just wanted to skip steps and get to the good stuff. "If it helps any, when you smile at her, she feels happier. You bring a little sunshine into her." Even as he said that, he pondered how strange this little human was. She was actually making bonds with his family at an impossible rate. It was almost unnatural how fast some of his family was starting to love her, not just Alice, who always leapt into things with all she had. He didn't say anything and definitely didn't think anything near Edward, but he wondered if whatever it was that was keeping Edward out of her mind was also pushing her into the others hearts.

"I've never had a best friend." Alice spoke and he felt her longing. Jasper pushed a little love her way and she did give him a soft smile. "Well, you hardly count, you're my mate. I mean a real girlfriend, someone I can talk to about anything."

"Anything?" Jasper cut off his emotional link to Alice so she wouldn't be bothered by his apprehension.

"Well, anything I can." Alice frowned for just a moment and then shifted to lean against the door, her head resting on her hand. "Obviously there are limits. I want to trust her with what I can. I want the sleepovers, the shopping trips, and the late night talks. I want it all."

And that was why Jasper was doing this, putting himself in a small car with a human that smelled better than normal and hunting more regularly so he didn't disappoint Alice with a mistake she might not ever fully forgive. Ever since they'd learned about Bella Swan, Alice had been having visions of the girl, visions that made Alice happy, almost giddy at times. This girl filled the part of Alice's heart that Jasper didn't and that was fine with him. Anything to make Alice happy, she was his sanity, and the happier she was the better she was able to help him control himself. She was his salvation, after all.

"She'll wake up when we fill up with gas." Alice said after a moment. "If I want her to have any energy for our big day out I apparently have to wait for her to wake up on her own." Jasper smirked as he realized his little darlin' had been considering waking Bella up so she would talk to her. He glanced at the gas gauge and guessed they might be keeping quiet for another hour.

After ten minutes he cracked the windows, to get some fresh air in the car with them.

It was forty minutes after that they heard Bella's heart start racing, and he gripped the steering wheel a little more firmly at the flash of fear he felt before the girl jerked awake. Her fear got stronger, enough to smell, just for a moment as she noticed her surroundings, but then she let out a breath and woke up completely. Jasper wasn't willing to let her dwell on that fear, it felt like she was thinking she was about to die. He pushed peace and calm at her. The scent of fear faded and she blushed a little. "Sorry, didn't mean to fall asleep."

"It's alright darlin." He answered her softly and she gave him an odd smile, a little too thankful for the pardon, he thought. "Though Alice was going to paint your face in your sleep if you didn't wake up soon." He teased and glanced over at his wife, who was just now managing to get that concerned look off of her face.

"I was not!" Alice protested his teasing, and she looked amused, but he could sense she was still concerned.

He spoke super quiet. "It was a nightmare." He explained, even as he kept an eye on the human in the rearview mirror. Alice didn't remember sleeping, but he'd had his fair share of nightmares when he was in the army, before he was turned. "She's fine, a little unsettled, but she's fine."

"Where are we?" Bella was glancing around outside the windows.

"The car needs gas, we pulled off." Alice explained gently, even as he found the station they needed. When he stopped the car Bella got out, and Alice followed her. Jasper stood at the pump, but his attention was on the two ladies. Alice had grabbed Bella's arm, and he could feel happiness and excitement in his wife, as well as the tender affection growing in Bella as she grinned at Alice, who was talking about all sorts of unhealthy car riding snacks she was willing to buy the girl.

They went into the store for food and a bathroom break, and he just studied them through the window as they made their way to the back of the place and the bathroom, where Alice was going to have to fake using the facilities. He smirked, thinking of the performance she was probably starting right now. The things they all did to keep that human around.

…..

** Bella Pov**

Bella slid into the backseat again, and Alice stood, holding that door opened for a moment. "You don't mind, do you Jazzy?"

"No, go ahead, I'll play chauffer." He said and then Alice followed her into the backseat. It was a little odd, but Bella just slid over more to make room for Alice. She set the bag she couldn't convince Alice she didn't have to buy on the floor. It held sugary treats and Alice handed over the diet pepsi she'd bought Bella. Apparently Bella needed to be loaded up with sugar and caffeine, and Bella almost laughed in the store when she'd realized Alice was trying to keep her awake. Bella wasn't sure that was necessary, she felt better, more awake this time.

"I didn't want you getting lonely back here." Alice explained with a smile, as they started out of the gas station to find their way back to the highway.

Drinking would just mean her next bathroom break would be sooner than she'd like, but she was pretty sure she'd make it to Portland before then. She didn't want to be the reason vampires had to pull the car over, so she paid attention to these things. The drink was cold and felt way better going down her throat than she'd expected, she must have been thirsty. Bella did what she could to not noticed how Alice stared at her using a straw. The Cullens 'ate' in the lunchroom, but apparently they never looked around, because Alice liked to watch her do the simplest things at times, as if it were novel and cute.

After some chatting about school and the art assignment they had, Bella learned that Jasper wasn't in photography, he was in video production. "We make all sorts of videos in that class, short movies, music videos, I tend to do nature videos."

"You don't need actors for nature videos." Bella said, she bet that was one of the draws for Jasper.

"No, no you don't." He looked up into the rearview mirror and gave her a small nod, as if she guessed right.

Bella glanced over at Alice but saw she was in a vision, so quickly moved her attention back to Jasper so she could pretend she didn't notice. His eyes, even in the mirror, were looking at her more thoughtfully.

"It's a less known symptom of ADHD." Jasper spoke quietly. "Alice 'zones out' a few times a day." Bella just nodded a little, since her ploy to not notice the visions didn't work.

"You know, there are a few classes the school offers during the summer." Alice spoke up, but Bella could see she looked just a little embarrassed. She kind of wished Jasper hadn't said anything in trying to cover the visions up. It wasn't like Alice was doing vampire things in front of her, she was just zoning out. Bella reached out a hand and rested it over Alice's, and that earned her another smile. "They normally save them for the students that failed classes and need to catch up to graduate, but we might be able to talk them into letting us take Video Production together."

"Earn credits faster." Bella smiled a little at that idea. She had wanted to work full time in the summer and earn money, but a few trips around the parts of town she could walk to, the areas she could even look for a job in, made it clear she wasn't finding full time work for the summer until she had a car, and she wasn't getting a car until she had a job, so this summer was going to be like the ones she had in her own life as a teenager, begging for hours and endless boredom when she didn't get them. "How many classes do you think they'd let us do?" Bella felt Alice squeeze her hand gently, and then noticed Alice wasn't letting go.

The little vampire gave her a smile that seemed so tender and so grateful and Bella didn't even know what she'd done to earn that one, but she gave an awkward blushing smile back. "If we do enough work in video production over the summer we can take advanced with Jasper in the fall."

"That's an awful lot of credits. I want to go to college, I'm not sure I can do that." Bella started to feel disappointed, even though she didn't know Jasper enough to really want to spend time with him, she would have liked being partners with Alice in a class like that. Alice was a director, naturally, the photo shoot showed Bella that, and Bella had ideas, just listening to Jasper talk about his class, she got so many ideas.

"You can test out of Spanish one and go right into second year. That's all the colleges want after all, second year, so if you don't do first and pass that they will be happy." Alice told her.

"How did you?" Bella found herself stunned enough to start asking and then she clammed up as quickly as she could once she realized Alice's vision must have included that as well. She froze, her mind not quite awake enough to get them out of this one.

"I thought Jasper could tutor you, but you already know Spanish?" Alice frowned at her. Bella was just stunned she'd been wrong, but now she was stuck with a lie.

"I did live in Phoenix." She mentioned, but as far as she knew that other Bella didn't pick up Spanish there. No, this Bella learned from babysitters in the neighborhood she grew up in and then later co-workers while in high school. They used to laugh at her accent, and she made a few embarrassing mistakes regularly, but she'd flew through high school Spanish with that background. Apparently she was going to get to do that again. She'd thought she might have to dumb herself down or take a different language, because the other Bella wouldn't have ever picked this up, but if she could claim it was the summer tutoring she could use what she already knew to get out of a high school class. It started to make her wish she could claim all sorts of tutoring in the summer and skip a few more classes, but all she'd get would be other classes, not an automatic credit. "I could use some tutoring though, if I'm going to ask to be skipped up."

"I wouldn't mind teaching ya darlin'" Jasper spoke up. "But in the Summer I travel a bit. It might be phone calls and homework for the most part."

"Oh, I can make that work" Bella just needed to claim she had help, she didn't really need help. She did look over at Alice, though, at the reminder of vacations. Alice would be giving up some, undoubtedly, amazing vacations.

"There is still plenty of time off for summer even if we take summer classes. We'll still be able to go on our shopping trip." Alice smiled at her. "I was actually surprised when Rosalie told me you agreed to that." Alice looked so happy and Jasper's smile was a bit wide for his face, since he normally seemed stoic and stand offish. Perhaps Alice's happy was leaking out. "I'll get to have you all summer!" It was an odd comment, but Bella just went with it.

"We do go camping quite a bit in the summer." Jasper spoke up. "There are sometimes a few nice days in a row where we can manage it."

"Oh, yes." Alice frowned a little. "I might miss class a bit more in the summer."

"We'll catch up." Bella said, not even asking the normal question of whether Alice really HAD to go with her family. They still hadn't gotten permission, but with Alice this positive, Bella thought they'd get it. "We can work harder on the days you're around and I want to try some night scenes." Night scenes would give them times when Alice wouldn't have to cancel, so Bella decided she wanted those. She had no idea how or what for yet, but they'd make it work.

They spent the last hour of their drive talking about video production and potential video ideas. Jasper explained quite a bit about what they could and couldn't do with the school's computers or the software they could get for their own computers. It was a sad reminder that Bella needed a computer before she needed a car. If they were going to work on this from home, well, it was going to have to be Bella's home. She still wasn't being invited to the Cullens and Edward was likely going to be a wrench in a lot of future plans.

Bella was so distracted by the conversation and planning assignments that sounded as fun as they sounded cool, that when they came close to the familiar exit she spoke without thinking, "If you skip this exit and catch the next you'll miss the worst of the traffic."

…


	26. Chapter 26

**Bella Pov**

It was such a little mistake, not even vampire related, and yet Bella saw the potential for disaster easily and quickly after the words left her mouth. It didn't help that the moment of panic she felt had to be obvious, she struggled to calm down, even as she noticed both vampires giving her odd looks. "Charlie apparently comes by here once in a while." She gave what felt like a weak smile. "He also told me we have to visit the bookstore, it's huge."

"Alright." Alice looked at her a little like she was uncertain what to say, but Bella looked out the window at the familiar roads and reminded herself to be lost in this city, to not do that again. Out of the corner of here eye she could see Jasper's lips moving just barely and no sound. Bella sighed and found herself straining to hear what they were saying. It was just not possible to pick it up, but Jasper did give her a suspicious look and Alice had pleading eyes for a moment. Bella had screwed up, and her lie wasn't as convincing when Jasper could feel her nervousness about it. She had no idea how she'd fix this, but she'd have to at some point today. Trying right now might just make it worse. At least Jasper wasn't going to be with them much longer, Bella found him the hardest one to work around.

It was easy enough to find parking, since they were coming at the building from the back. They all got out, even though only Jasper was going into the show. They walked him to the front of the building and Alice talked with him about their plans for the day, before wishing him luck. He wasn't coming back in the BMW with them, apparently they were certain he'd get a car, but then again if he failed that he could always run home.

"So," Alice gave her a smile as they stopped just far enough away to not seem in line to go look at the cars. "There is a very good Saturday market here and there are a few nice stores."

"An arts and crafts market?" She asked and when Alice nodded Bella grinned a little. She did like shopping at booths, you could find a lot of good things for decorating at a good price if you knew what you were doing. "But is anything opened yet." Bella had to ask, even though she knew everything really started up at ten.

"The bookstore you were mentioning would have to be Powell's, it's huge and has used and new books. They are opened, we could start there." Alice then gently took Bella's hand and started to walk them in the right direction. Alice had a hand gently on her arm as well and leaned into her once in a while as they walked. Bella was aware they were getting a few odd looks, because Alice didn't know that her grip wasn't a best friend grip, it was how she would walk with Jasper. Perhaps teenage girls would walk with each other this way as well, fifty years ago or such, but now that 'gay' was in the dictionary they didn't. Bella didn't really care what other people thought of this, Alice was happy and smiling a lot, and it was more than enough reason not to say anything.

The familiar bookstore took up an entire Portland city block. Now Portland had some notoriously short city blocks, but it was still impressive looking. When she'd moved away from Portland, it had been the bookstore she'd missed. "Jasper likes this place too, maybe we'll come back sometime during the summer." Alice spoke and Bella noticed Alice giving her a small smirk. "Now I don't want to spend all day in just one store."

"At least one hour, maybe two?" Bella negotiated with a grin.

"Only if you're actually going to buy something." Alice spoke, but there was little concern about that. Bella was a lot better off than she used to be when her family lived here, Charlie had given her sixty dollars and told her she had to spend it all today. At the time she couldn't believe what she was hearing. It seemed wrong to take it, but she also didn't want to make Alice pay for everything, even though she knew Alice would do it, and she'd do it if it looked like Bella wasn't buying anything.

"I think I'll find a few things." She said in response.

A half hour later Bella wandered around a corner, away from where Alice was trying to find a gift for Jasper, and found herself in the parapsychology shelves. Normally it was just a fanciful idea if she flipped through these books, but looking at the titles now she found herself just staring for a stunned moment. Next to a book about precognition, which with the existence of Alice she knew was real, sat a book on reincarnation. Bella put the few books in her hands down as she studied the spines of the books in front of her.

Okay, every time she'd thought about, or heard about reincarnation, it was about someone who died being reborn as a baby and supposedly having access to memories from before. It was fiction that people never fully let go of. Even some religions subscribed to the idea. Her hand reached out to pull the book to her, but she was a little shaky as she read the first paragraph, which held the definition of reincarnation. It was "The rebirth of a soul or other non-physical aspect of human consciousness in a new physical body after death." It was simple, one sentence. Bella stared at it and finally realized there was a word for what happened to her. It was nothing like she thought it would be, but if she'd been irritated to wake up a teenager, she couldn't imagine how upset she would have been to open her eyes to see a doctor delivering her as a baby.

"Bella?" Alice called out and Bella quickly fumbled to shove that book back on the shelf, as Alice came around the corner. There was a clunk at the book hit the back of the shelf. Bella saw a concerned look on Alice's face as she looked at her and Bella wondered if it was her heart, that was pounding a bit harder now, or a vision that had Alice studying her. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine." Bella was sure she was as pale as a vampire at the moment, because she felt like it. It would have been nice to come to this little epiphany when she was alone. She noticed Alice looking at her hand and Bella glanced at it, while pulling it off the books.

Alice asked softly. "You believe in that stuff? Precognition?" Of course Alice would pick the wrong book, see the one that related to her, and even that was too close.

"I don't see why not. I mean people do that all the time, that ones relatively common." She swallowed and focused on calming down. There were a lot of stories about precog episodes, people sensing loved ones in danger, people getting off the damned plane before it crashed, and she wasn't going to think about Alice as she talked about this, not at all, it might slip out if she did.

"Really? People see the future all the time?" Alice asked with a small smile, but her eyes were a little tense.

"Not everyone, and not all the time, but yeah." Bella wanted to get out of this conversation. "Nostradamus is just the big time guy, but some people just see enough to dodge problems. Haven't you heard about people who change up their daily routine based on a 'feeling' only to find out they would have died if they were on that bridge?" Okay, clearly she couldn't stop thinking about that.

"Okay, that could be precognition or clairvoyance." Alice spoke so matter of factly as she corrected Bella. "If they'd had a 'vision' and saw the bridge collapse and then changed their path it would be precognition, but if it was just a feeling, it could be either,"

This was a conversation way too close to home and Bella felt a nauseous talking about bridges and powers with a vampire as she stood in a body that she'd been 'reborn' into. "I need the bathroom." Bella interrupted and then swallowed hard and put a hand over her mouth as she found she was worse off than she realized. She rushed around the stacks and to the bathroom, she knew where it was and she was grateful to find an opened stall as she lost the junk food she'd eaten on the way into the city.

"Oh my god, Bella." Alice sounded panicked and Bella couldn't respond because she was going for round two. "Carlisle, Bella's throwing up!" Her voice was a little shrill as she said that.

Bella grabbed some toilet paper and wiped her mouth as she was kneeling in front of the toilet. She weakly flushed it. "I'll be fine." She reassured Alice, who was so sweet and just so lost in dealing with this particular aspect of humanity. In seeing what was in her stomach, it wasn't hard to come up with an excuse. "That was just too much sugar for me."

Bella started to tug on her bag, looking for her water to get the nasty taste out of her mouth.

"What do you need?" Alice was by her side in an instant. Her phone was set down on the floor and Bella could see Carlisle's name on it, along with the fact it was an active connection.

"Water." Bella glanced over at her, but made sure not to breathe on Alice. "Really, I'll be fine in a little bit." She then muttered more quietly, thinking about how sensitive Alice's sense of smell was, "Wish I had a toothbrush."

She didn't put the bottle to her lips, not wanting to get the smell on it. She rinsed her mouth out and spit into the toilet. When she went to stand up, Alice helped her, really helped her because that little frame shouldn't have had it that easy. Bella ignored it and went to the sinks to wet a paper towel and wipe off her face. "I'm sorry I scared you. We'll just buy some antacids and walk a little slower for a little while and in a half hour I'll be just fine." That was a rather dramatic way to end an uncomfortable conversation, but it wasn't like she'd planned it that way.

"Carlisle?" Was all Alice said as she picked up the phone, clearly checking if Bella was right. "Oh, okay." Bella sighed and mopped a little sweat off of her chest as she watched Alice in the mirror, putting the phone away. "Where do we get antacid?"

"Convenience store, grocery store, pharmacy, they might even have it here." Bella was starting to feel a bit better. "Gum, I think I want gum too."

"But that has sugar." Alice looked a little guilty and Bella turned to face her.

"This was not your fault." Bella spoke firmly. "I knew it was a bit much when I ate it, I should have saved half for the drive back. I wouldn't be here if I wasn't such a pig." Her excuse was not going to hurt Alice, make her doubt the nice things she's done, Bella was determined about that.

They made their way back to where Alice had left her stack of books and Bella grabbed her stack off the paranormal shelf where she'd put it. It wasn't hard to catch the studying look Alice was giving her, and the books that remained on that shelf, so Bella didn't grab any of the parapsychology books to add to her stack.

They got to the register and Bella watched as Alice looked over the collection of gums and candy, trying to see if they had tums or something like it. "We'll have to stop by another store, on the way to the market." Bella spoke up as she saw there wasn't anything here, but she did grab a gum.

"I'm buying those too." Alice said as she put her own books down to be rung up, pointing to what was in Bella's hand. Bella opened her mouth to protest. "You didn't keep what I bought you this morning, I'm buying you those." Even though Bella told Alice it wasn't her fault, it was clear she needed to do something. Bella sighed and let the little vampire buy her the books as an apology for something she never did wrong.

Alice was extra gentle with her as they got the antacid from a store, and made their way to the Market. Alice also carried all the books in a relatively full bag, and she gave Bella searching looks once in a while that made Bella feel like she'd just proved how very fragile humans were to the little vampire. She'd become something delicate to be taken care of. Bella was going to have to nip that idea in the bud as soon as possible, if it didn't let up, or she'd end up with Alice acting like that ass Edward did in the books, not letting Bella do anything that might hurt her.

Alice started to relax as they were looking at the booths and Bella was grateful for that. "What do you think of this?" Alice held a large scarf up to her neck, and it was colorful and airy.

"Do you have anything that would go with that?" Bella asked and Alice rolled her eyes at her and smirked. "Oh, so do you think you can buy clothes that you don't need that will go with that?" Bella changed her question.

"Of course I can." Alice pretended it was a ridiculous question, while grinning at her.

"I like it for you." Bella finally gave in and Alice smiled and brought it to the vendor to buy.

For the rest of the morning and into the afternoon, they looked at all the booths, and Bella was stopped from buying booth food by a vampire very afraid of a repeat of the morning. They ate at a restaurant that served what Alice called good food, and apparently by that she meant unlikely to make you throw up. Bella went through great pains making sure Alice could hide her meal, because it was no space needle and Bella had to comment on every outfit people were wearing as they walked by, or something else about them, to create a believable distraction.

They made their way back to the car around three, because Bella was carrying all she could in bags and Alice couldn't carry more without it looking odd. As she stood by the car waiting for her turn at the trunk, Bella glanced around the parking lot distractedly.

"We've been shopping for six hours." Alice spoke up, which drew Bella's attention that it was her turn. She started to tuck bags into the trunk, and she patted the last one into place. "Perhaps that's enough for one day." It took an effort to not let her jaw drop at Alice saying that. Bella turned to look at the little vampire, and noticed the 'humans are fragile" expression Alice was giving her as she studied her back. It was only three, and this was supposed to be a full day out. It would probably disappoint Alice if they left any time before dinner, and did Bella really want to let Alice set the precedent of limiting Bella's activity because she was afraid it was too much?

"Okay, so what else do you want to do? Zoo?" Bella asked, before she thought. Would taking a Cullen to a zoo be like taking a human to a beautiful buffet and not letting them eat? "Anything else?" She added once she realized the zoo would be a horrible idea. "Gallery? Musuem?"

Alice chuckled. "You don't want to go?"

"Well, we drove three hours and it'll be three back, I think we should be here longer than the trip takes." Bella explained with a small smile. Her voice was softer. "I'm having fun with you." The 'with you' earned her a soft shy smile and Bella found her hand taken again as Alice leaned into her.

"Well, this is the land of no taxes, how about we buy a computer and video cameras for our summer class? We'll be starting it in six weeks if we take it, it will give us time to try and learn the software Jasper was telling us about."

"I can't afford," Bella started to say and Alice sighed and shook her head.

"I have a credit card, I can. I'll buy me a computer and a video camera and let you borrow it half the time to learn how to use it. We're going to be partners, this is both our grades." Alice spoke and it made sense. "Do you know much about computers?"

"Some, we need to find the software we need first and see what it requires." Bella moved to the passenger side of the car. "I'm thinking Best Buy."

"Alright, we'll find one." Alice slipped into the driver's seat, but she had to readjust it a comical amount, because Jasper and his long legs were in there last.

Bella helped Alice pick out the right laptop, and it was on sale. She helped her find the software and a good, quality, video camera. From there she had no idea what went wrong, but Alice had her hands on a second laptop.

"I don't want you thinking you have to buy my friendship. I like you a lot, you don't have to throw money at me." Bella spoke quietly, wanting Alice to understand.

"My family is very well off Bella, and the money you're trying to figure out how to earn will take you weeks once you have the job. I blow this kind of money on shoes I only wear once. It would mean more to me to use it to make you happy. I know you need a computer, and these are on sale."

Bella sighed heavily and looked at the laptop in question again. It would clearly mean a lot to Alice, and she needed one. Alice just wanted to help her friend, it was nothing to her and she knew it was something huge to Bella. Alice was her friend, and if she really meant it, then some walls needed to come down. "Okay." She whispered and Alice pulled her into a hug with a huge smile on her lips.

"I can't wait to tell Emmett you took the computer." Alice teased as they left the store, with the cart. They had two laptops, two video cameras, and a couple hundred dollars in editing software. Bella found some of her earlier nausea was back.

"Oh god, don't start that." Bella's eyes widened as she saw a competition coming. "If Charlie sees me taking gifts left and right I'll be banned from seeing you guys."

Alice faded out on her while they stopped by the car and Bella waited in the Best Buy parking lot for her to come to again. "Oh, that's not right. We have the money."

"And he doesn't want to raise a whore who takes it." Bella explained with a hint of a smile. "It'll look that way if I'm showered with gifts you know, especially if Emmett does it."

"Actually, since you're gay, I would think I'd be the suspicious one." Alice gave her a slow, teasing wink, while she unlocked the back seat.

"I don't know, if Emmett hands over a car I might find gender less important." Bella teased back.

With the price of the laptops in the car, Bella no longer felt like shopping. She didn't want to leave the computers unattended at all, actually. So this time they did get on the freeway to head back towards Washington. "Any idea what I should tell Charlie?" She asked while glancing back at the most expensive present she'd ever gotten, in any life she remembered.

"Once Gay marriage is legal in Washington, I'll make an honest woman of you, but until then you'll just have to be my whore." Alice teased and Bella almost hurt her neck jerking it back to see the little vampire laughing at her.

"Funny very funny, and I'm sure Jasper won't mind that he'll have to wait for polygamy to be legal for his shot?" Bella shook her head and sat back in her seat more normally, since she'd been leaning over to see the boxes.

"Naw, he won't mind living in sin." Alice told her with a nonchalant attitude.

…..


	27. Chapter 27

** Bella Pov**

Bella took a deep breath and glared at the sun, before getting out of the patrol car at school. After her trip with Alice, Bella put all her energy into setting up her new computer. She did lie and say she only borrowed a hundred dollars from Alice so she'd have enough, Charlie didn't know what money she had and she didn't want a lecture about taking advantage of friends when she'd given it to herself until that moment when she realized that Alice needed to give her something meaningful.

Sleep had been nearly impossible to come by for the past two nights. Every time she fell asleep she had nightmares, and the theme was easy to see. Finding out she was back from the dead made her think of all sorts of horrible ways she could have done that. Zombie Bella, stuck in a baby and unable to talk Bella, about to be slaughtered for pork Bella, it was enough to make her want to give up sleep forever, but then that would be Vampire Bella and she wasn't doing that just to avoid nightmares. One thing about the nightmares, they made her much more grateful for her second chance, and how she wasn't any of those things. The only dream that didn't wake her up terrified was male Bella, but she was irritated as hell because she had erectile dysfunction. She blamed the commercials she'd seen before bed for that little angle.

If the nightmares didn't stop soon though, she'd be tempted to seek therapy, which was something she never thought she'd say. She couldn't though, which was the sad part, when she really needed it and was willing to try anything, even talking, she couldn't talk or she'd be locked up fast for being crazy.

Her eyes were a bit bloodshot, and she was moving slow, but she was still moving so she made her way to the first class of the day, alone for the first time in weeks. What was really strange was that people still looked at her as if she had Alice next to her. It was like seeing her alone was just as fascinating as seeing her with a Cullen.

She went through her day quietly, getting as much done as she could while in class and debating about what to do about lunch. She could see if the library had books on paranormal things, but did she really want more ammunition for her subconscious to torture her with? Not to mention high school level books were bound to be simplistic for someone that really wanted to understand it all.

Instead Bella sat in front of a computer once she'd eaten her sandwich, looking for information about reincarnation. She couldn't do it at home yet, because they didn't have the internet connected. Charlie did call for it though, which was sweet, they just couldn't do it until later, and Bella was going to have to buy a wireless router before Thursday so that when they came it could be set up properly. That was one thing she remembered too late, you never just went out and bought a computer, there was always a series of other purchases that had to go with it.

"So, no Cullens today?" An irritating voice spoke from behind her and Bella turned just a little to see Jessica was here. "Not invited to the camping trip?" That was spoken as if it was supposed to hurt.

"No, after our huge shopping trip to Portland this weekend I'm just too tired to camp." Bella smirked a little at the jealousy in Jessica's eyes. "Besides, I don't like camping. I really don't get the appeal of sleeping on the ground in a tent."

"Whatever." Jessica moved closer and leaned against the table Bella was sitting at. "Look, I don't get your strategy, but it clearly isn't working. Hanging out with his sisters isn't making Edward look at you twice."

"I didn't think it would," It was tempting to really slam the girl's ego down hard, but Bella tried to remember Jessica was a child. "He's actually a bit of an ass, looks fade, but being an ass is forever." She gave Jessica a meaningful look when she said that.

"Whatever, if that's what you have to tell yourself to feel better about not being able to catch his attention fine, but it's pathetic how you keep trying to use his family to get to him." Jessica glanced back and Bella noticed that Lauren was in hearing range and smirking. Oh, tag team huh, Bella thought.

"If they were all single, which one would you go for?" Bella asked with a raised eyebrow. "Would it really be Edward? That's not the one I'd pick." She'd rarely seen him in the halls, but she went ahead as if she had. "Emmett's the fun one and lets face it he's built, I've felt it, it's all hard muscle. Jasper is a gentleman through and through, and I doubt he'd ever even yell at a woman, and he was so sweet on our road trip, making sure I was comfortable and saying Darlin' this and Darlin' that, his accent is adorable. Then there is Edward." Bella shook her head. "The boy that you drool over who I hear stomps around like a three year old if he doesn't get his way." And would Edward even thank her for trying to calm Jessica's lust, probably not, but this was fun, and she was looking for something amusing to keep her from falling asleep in the keyboard. "You may think it's a little creepy, but the fact that Alice and Rosalie had their choice of those three guys and didn't choose Edward, when they live with him and know him best, makes you think."

Jessica started to turn red and her mouth was moving but there was no sound for a moment. "You're lying."

"About what?" Bella smiled just a little and Lauren moved a bit closer, so it was tag team time.

"I'm going to tell Rosalie and Alice that you're after their men, that'll end your little Cullen fan club." Lauren said with a hiss and Bella smirked a little more at the fact that Lauren considered that a good threat.

"Please do." She could imagine Alice's expression and Rosalie would tear into Lauren like a pit bull. "Elaborate, make shit up, I know you will, but appreciating something fine, like the Cullens, doesn't mean I'd do something stupid to hurt my friends. You might back stab each other that way, and I bet you'll share at least a few boys between the two of you before graduation, but I don't do that, and they know it. That's why I'm going on trips to Seattle and Portland on the weekends with them and you aren't."

"Why you little bitch," Lauren raised a hand and Bella braced herself, but she stared the girl in the eye.

"I wouldn't want to be you if you bruised me. Rosalie might hurt you, but Emmett certainly would. Ask Mike." She didn't flinch but it was hard when Lauren slammed her hand down on the table instead, tossing Bella's books and notebooks to the ground.

The librarian came out from the back room and the two girls left quickly. "Are you alright Bella?" The older woman asked.

"I hate teenage girls." Was all Bella muttered, as she picked up her things and sat back down to work on her computer. "But I'm fine."

"They are just jealous dear." The older woman gave her a small smile, but that wasn't news.

…

** Emmett Pov**

He was grinning from ear to ear. Alice had gone into a vision, and Edward had been making faces the entire time as he watched it too, but once Alice came back and shared what his little Bella Bear had been saying it was awesome. "Yeah, I'm all that." He teased and Rosalie hit him in the stomach lightly, but she looked just as amused.

"I knew she'd appreciate my Jasper if she spent time with him." Alice joked as Jasper leaked a little embarrassment at them. Alice then turned to Edward and her smile faded a little. "She doesn't know you Edward, she was just trying to shut Jessica up. I mean with all the trouble you get from Jessica, maybe this was even doing you a favor."

"I'm not like that." He pouted and Emmett thought it was funny, because he kind of was.

Edward huffed and went to his room, and Emmett chuckled at the proof that he was indeed what Bella claimed. That thought earned him an angry growl from upstairs.

"I don't like that as soon as the sun kept us away those harpies went after her." Rosalie spoke up finally, and the teasing atmosphere faded a bit in the main room.

"At least Bella feels like you'll protect her." Alice sighed. "I guess she thinks I'm too small to do it."

"Naw, can't be that pixie sticks." Emmett teased Alice, knowing she wasn't fond of candy after this weekend. "I bet it's just because she knows my Rosie has a better growl. She has good instincts, probably can tell who's the bigger predator."

"Alice?" Edward was suddenly on the top of the stairs staring down at Alice and Emmett watched his disbelief. "You didn't think to tell us you suspected this?"

"It could have been the candy." Alice said and Emmett found himself irritated to not get the conversation again.

"This is my Bella Bear, what the hell are you two talking about?" Emmett put his foot down on the looks and secret conversation.

Esme came down from upstairs as well, Carlisle in tow. Edward looked up at them, making their way down the stairs and waved toward Alice. "Alice suspects Bella might have an active power now." He hissed it like it was proof of something he'd suggested all along and Emmett scowled at him.

"What do you mean?" Carlisle looked over at a somewhat upset looking Alice, who had her hands wringing in front of her.

"I have no proof." Alice spoke firmly and Emmett stared at her in shock, knowing what came next would be big. "But she is very certain that powers like precognition exist, very certain."

"How the hell did that come up?" Rosalie asked sharply.

"I found her panicking in the bookstore and she was looking at the parapsychology section. I could smell the upset on her." Alice sighed. "And she knows things sometimes, it's just odd. She thought a lot of people were clairvoyant to some degree, or that it was common. I think seeing it in print made her so nervous she was sick, unless people become extremely nervous before throwing up, it came first."

"Oh dear." Carlisle muttered.

"She knew Rosie's middle name, just pulled it out of the air." Emmett sighed as he admitted that.

"For a girl that never went anywhere, she knew the best route to take to get to the car show." Jasper spoke up quietly.

"I doubt she can smell out a bathroom, but she found it as if she knew where it was the entire time, and that store was a maze." Alice sighed heavily.

"This isn't enough for proof. Even though she called that little Quileute boy a dog, it could be that it was because he was being a dog." Rosalie muttered, "But it is enough to make you wonder."

"Are we going to wait until she has a 'dream' that we drink blood?" Edward's voice rose a little. "Is this enough for you to see this is a bad idea yet, or do we have to wait for her to develop enough power to figure out all of her friends aren't human?"

"No, it isn't enough proof. This could just be odd luck, or it could be that she's developing a power that could hurt her." Esme stood firm and Emmett liked that. "If she really is like Alice in any way, we can't leave her alone to deal with that pain. Humans won't know what to do with her."

"She isn't your responsibility." Edward spoke loudly.

"You're wrong. I will not abandon her like her useless excuse for a mother did." Esme growled a little and Emmett nodded his support.

"This isn't natural, this is so wrong." Edward glared at them all, before he ran out the door.

"He's visiting Alaska again, he'll be back." Alice informed them after a moment, and Esme sagged against the edge of the couch. "He's considering getting Eleazer involved, to get an answer one way or another on her powers."

Emmett muttered, "I think we can add that she thinks Edward is an ass to her good guesses."

"See if you can call him, ask him to give us some time before we start exposing Bella to yet more vampires." Carlisle sighed heavily and Emmett almost wanted to take that job, but Alice nodded. He'd love to give that pampered little ass a verbal smack down for going behind their backs.

"I'm not picking her over him, I know he's desperate for us to leave, and he's jumping at any excuse, but she needs us." Esme sounded shaken and Emmett moved to rest a hand on her shoulder. "If this is true, the humans can't help her, and if it isn't there is no reason to abandon her." He moved out of the way when Carlisle moved to hug her.

"I guess with Edward gone we can invite her over again?" Rosalie sighed. "Ghost stories and Ouija boards? How are you going to test this one? We can't let her know we're serious."

"I'm taking Psychology this quarter." Jasper spoke up. "I could claim it's an assignment I'm doing, and test everyone. I'll even see if the teacher will let me turn it in." Emmett noticed him look at Alice. "You might want to throw the game on your test darlin', no need to make her think you're psychic."

"When is the sun going to stop being an issue?" Rosalie spoke slowly, a hint of a growl in her words. "And do we have any idea how long Edward will be gone?"

"We could ask her to come over today after school, tomorrow will be raining, and it wouldn't seem too odd for us to all stay inside for a bit when she gets here." Alice sighed and shook her head, "Edward is undecided about how long he'll be gone or what he'll do when he gets there. We know we have tonight."

"Damn." Emmett muttered, "Can't we just ask him to stay away for a week again? This is a school night, we won't get much time at all."

"I could talk Charlie into letting her stay over, but we'd have to let her sleep enough, we'd still only have until maybe ten." Alice spoke up and then pulled out her phone.

"I'll pick her up." Rosalie spoke up and Emmett gave her a concerned look. She gave him a weak smile back. "It's rude, but I'll use the honk to get her to come out method, I won't even try getting out of the car in the sun. Esme couldn't get away with that, and I doubt Charlie would let a boy treat her that way."

"And I never do that, so it would seem odd." Alice added, and then focused on the phone. Her voice was sugary and sweet and Emmett kind of hated how easy she was able to get permission for Bella to come see her, when he was sure he would have been told it was a school night and had it left at that.

"Disconnect the cable, no tv tonight." Alice told them as she hung up. "It's less suspicious for us to play a bunch of odd games and do psychic testing if we pretend the tv is broken, or she might expect Emmett to pull out the PS2 or a movie."

….


	28. Chapter 28

Bella stepped into the house with a heavy sigh, glad to be back. Her bag felt heavier than it should and she stumbled on the steps getting off the school bus, so she needed to be safely in the house. Setting her bag down near the front door, she moved into the kitchen for something to drink. She barely got to the fridge when the phone rang.

She was right next to it, so she answered it, while checking to make sure there was paper to write on. "Hello?"

"Bella!" Alice's voice was a bit more energetic than Bella wanted to hear, in spite of the fact she liked the little vampire. "We're having a school night sleep over."

"Wait a minute, the big part of that is school night." Bella sat down at the kitchen table. "I can't."

"No, Charlie already said you could, as long as I didn't keep you up all night." Alice spoke and Bella sighed heavily.

"Alice, you should really ask me first, before going over my head." Bella leaned on the table, resting her head on the hand that wasn't holding the phone.

"You don't want to come over?" Alice sounded stunned, and Bella felt bad. She never had said no before.

"I'm having nightmares again and I don't really want to bring them to your house." Bella explain. It wasn't a secret, lots of humans had nightmares. "I'm not going to be the best company tonight, I haven't been sleeping well, and I don't know when that's going to stop."

"Why are you having nightmares?" Alice asked, her voice soft and confused.

"I just do." Bella sighed. "So, I appreciate all the work you did convincing Charlie and all, but,"

"No, come over. We'll find a way to stop your nightmares. Maybe Carlisle can help." Bella paused at Alice's words and wondered if the doctor really could. Most doctors would probably suggests talking about it first, but what in her nightmares these past two nights would really be a problem to talk about? It wasn't odd to have strange nightmares, and maybe he'd give her a sleeping pill. He might be a doctor, but as a vampire who hadn't slept in forever he might be more inclined to hand over a pill. Just one night of good sleep and Bella could try and come up with a better solution.

She looked out and noticed the sun. "I still don't have a car." She spoke flatly.

"Rosalie said she'd pick you up." Alice spoke and Bella just stared outside at the beautiful spring day.

"What?" She had to have fallen asleep there for a moment, there was no way Rosalie was coming over in the sun.

"I said Rosalie will pick you up, but she's in a mood so be ready to go when she gets there." Alice added and Bella was a little surprised.

"What time?" She looked over at the clock and found her vampires were a bit impatient. She had to argue that she needed an hour, because she still needed to shower. She hadn't expected to see any vampires today and she just left the locker room after gym without bothering to shower.

Fifty minutes later Bella was drying her hair, with the bag packed and sitting on the bed. "Hey Bells." Charlie spoke as he moved into the doorway. Bella's body jerked in shock, because she hadn't heard him come in. "Sorry."

"I'm putting a bell on you." She muttered and he grinned at her.

"So, big night planned?" He smiled.

"I guess so." She did like that he was willing to let her out all night on a school night, as a father that was a bit permissive, so even though she hadn't really wanted to go she thanked him.

"Don't stay up too late." He told her as she noticed a honking sound.

"I don't think I'll be able to." She told him and grabbed her bag. She could see the BMW on the road in front of the house. As soon as it stopped, she could hear the blonde vampire hit the horn.

"Honking?" Charlie frowned.

"They were camping and called it short, maybe she twisted an ankle." Bella muttered, to keep it from becoming a big deal. "I'll go out there before she tries walking on it." It was a simple excuse, her vampires should have thought of it.

The BMW had somewhat dark tinted windows, which probably helped a lot, but Bella made sure to get into the car quickly and didn't look at the driver while the door was opened, just in case, though it would be tempting to see Rosalie sparkle, she probably made that odd little quirk of vampire life look good.

"Are you okay? You look a little run down." Rosalie asked her when Bella did look over at her.

"Oh yeah," Bella sighed. "I go through sleeping problems every once in a while. I'm fine." She had been getting a bit better, but this weekend had her backsliding hard. Bella gave Rosalie a small smile when the vampire didn't start driving right away and was still studying her. "As long as I avoid operating heavy machinery it isn't a fatal condition." She was tired, and Rosalie looked a little too concerned for that.

"That's not funny at all." Rosalie spoke softly and Bella found a cold hand move to push some hair out of her face as Rosalie stared into her eyes. "Don't joke about that."

"Sorry." Bella muttered and Rosalie let her go to start driving. Bella sighed and leaned her arm on the door. "So camping wasn't going well?" A friend would ask, so she was stuck with it. Still, this night over was a shock and she had no idea why they were doing that.

"Well, Edward needed to go out of town tonight, so we had to leave early." Rosalie told her and it was a relief to know he wasn't around. "That's why Alice wanted to drag you over, that and the fact our TV broke down. I'm afraid you will be our entertainment."

"Maybe Esme will paint a wall, so you can watch it dry." Bella muttered, "Because I'm not really up to being an entertainer tonight."

Rosalie's smirk, even seen from the side, was enough to have Bella staring, in spite of herself. It took strength to turn and stare back out the window. "I think you'll do just fine." Rose spoke softly. "How was school today?"

"I took notes, but I think the teacher is just repeating himself, since the test is this week. I could get them for you tomorrow." Bella paused and considered the library incident. "Lauren is planning to tell you I'm trying to steal Emmett from you." Bella chuckled just a little. "Like anyone could do that."

"Why is she even talking to you?" Rosalie sounded just a little tense when she asked that. "Are you having trouble with her?"

"Just stupid teenage diva issues, nothing big." Bella wasn't worried about her yet.

"If she ever touches you," Bella turned to see Rosalie's eyes were a bit darker, and there was a hint of a growl in that unspecific threat.

"Thank you." Bella didn't know what else she could say. Hopefully no one tried to test things, because aside from Bella not wanting to fight, well, Rosalie was hopefully talking about a verbal smack down, but it might not be.

"I heard you got sick in Portland." Rosalie seemed to turn that statement into a question and Bella sighed.

"Just a bit." Bella admitted, and then turned to look out the windshield again. "So did Jasper get his car?"

"It's really for both him and Alice. Alice has never borrowed my car as much as she's been doing it these past few weeks. It was just time for us to have another one." And Bella nodded, but it made her think about the fact that their garage had lots of cars in it. Apparently not everyone was willing to share.

"Did our work with your room help with your Jacob Black problem?" Rosalie asked and Bella chuckled.

"Yeah." Bella had to smile at that. It had done the job, and most of the 'art' was in an empty drawer in her dresser in case it was needed again. Just the picture on her night table and the one decent picture remained. "I think it's taken care of."

"Good." Rosalie spoke softly and Bella found herself glancing over at her again.

When they got up to the house Rose pulled into the garage. "I'll just be a minute." Rose popped the hood of her car. "Why don't you go inside though, before Alice implodes with impatience?"

"Okay." Bella could see the sun hitting the ground outside of the garage and stretching most of the way to the porch. Of course Rosalie couldn't go in with her.

Bella made her way to the door, and it opened before she knocked. Emmett pulled her inside with a laugh and hugged her tight for a moment. "Bella Bear, I was worried Alice was going to forget and leave you in Portland." He teased.

"Don't rock her too much." Alice spoke up, and Bella sighed and gave the little vampire a shake of her head.

"I'm not loaded with candy, it's safe to shake me a little." But she did smile at Alice. She glanced around and took in the fact that everyone but Rosalie was in the main room. She'd missed this place in the little time she'd been banned from it, and seeing Esme smiling warmly at her, she missed her too. "Hey Esme, missed you."

Esme's smile was touched and the woman moved to take her from Emmett and give her a gentle hug as well. "You and I are just going to have to make plans. How about this weekend we go to the Home Show, it's in Port Angeles."

Esme's hands were caressing her cheeks and Bella could see her concern as Esme looked into Bella's bloodshot eyes, but Bella ignored that and gave her a shy smile. "It's your turn, isn't it?" Esme gave her a small smile at that, but it faded. "Are you okay?" Yet another female vampire asked her. Bella just sighed heavily.

"I'm doing okay for now. I get sleeping problems sometimes, and I'll admit it hasn't been this bad since last summer, but if I can just ride it out it should calm down again." She glanced at the Doctor behind Esme. "I'm hoping I might get a couple sleeping pills."

"We'll see about that. I'm not willing to write out prescriptions without actually doing an exam and deciding if that is the way we should go." Carlisle told her and Bella wasn't thrilled, but then it was what she'd expected. She noticed him looking over at Esme for a moment, before his eyes went to her, "Did you want me to exam you?"

"You can't see into my head, so I don't know what good it will do, but sure." Bella spoke without thinking and noticed that Jasper tensed up a little and stared at her strangely. Bella couldn't help but blush as she remembered her shield and the fact that this coven's telepath couldn't get in. She hadn't meant it that way.

"If you all don't mind, we could do this now, before the kids start trying to monopolize your time." He smiled at her and Bella shrugged and glanced around to see a few caring eyes giving her concerned looks. It was kind of nice, to be cared for, Bella thought, before she followed Carlisle upstairs.

"How are you going to do this? Do you have an exam table and nurse up here?" She joked just a little.

"Would you prefer another person to be with us?" He asked and Bella was a bit surprised.

"I don't really care." She told him. She knew nothing said tonight was going to remain between the two of them, and what could he really look at?

He opened a door and she finally saw his office. It had lots of books, and that painting over his desk drew her attention. She focused on it, and the three vampires that it would be best for her to never meet, the Volturi. It was also the first time she'd seen even a reproduction of someone with red eyes. "Nice, you paint?" She asked casually, when she realized she'd been looking too long.

"No, a friend painted it for me." He moved to clear off his desk, which considering how many things were in the room didn't have much on it. "This will have to do as an exam table. Why don't you sit down and I'll get my bag."

She used her arms to help her get onto the desk and then sat with her legs dangling off as he pulled out an old fashioned medical bag, the kind seen in some movies in doctors hands when they were doing house calls. It looked a little worn, and Bella wondered if it had sentimental value or if he simply couldn't find a replacement anymore.

His physical exam was a waste of time, but she allowed it. He checked heart, ears, listened to major veins as if he couldn't do it without the stethoscope. He checked reflexes, which were a bit slow apparently, but it could be the lack of sleep. He checked her eyes a lot, motor skills, and Bella suspected it wasn't all for her sleeping problem.

…..

** Esme Pov**

"I'd like to draw some blood." Carlisle's exam was going on a little long and Esme felt some irritation. They'd agreed not to pressure Bella to see him, but now that Bella needed a doctor he was going well beyond what was needed for her problem. His curiosity was cute, when it wasn't being intrusive.

"Not here." Bella spoke up quickly and Esme noticed a few vampires stopped what they were doing to listen. "That's a procedure done in a doctor's office, not their house and I'm not willing to deal with needles. My blood wouldn't affect my nightmares."

"Respect her limits, she is right and you know it." Esme growled out a little and ignored the shocked looks the others gave her. She never scolded him in front of them, but she couldn't exactly go into his office and say it to his face right now.

"Alright Bella, I was just trying to be thorough, but if you don't want to do that, it's fine." He spoke softly and Esme relaxed. "Let's talk about these nightmares. Can you tell me what you're dreaming about?"

Jasper spoke softly, "She's nervous."

"Of course she is, this is about what's keeping her up at night. I doubt she'd call winning the lottery a nightmare." Rosalie muttered.

"Well, I died," Esme grimaced at the mere thought of that, "And when I come to I'm in another body that isn't mine. Sometimes it's a baby and I can't even move, or other times I'm a zombie and I'm trapped in my coffin, or I get out and people are running from me."

"Poor thing." Esme put a hand over her mouth as she listened.

"She needs to stop reading those books." Alice added quietly. Esme wondered though if it was those books, because Bella had been reading them for a while and just now started with these nightmares from the sounds of it.

"I keep calling for help and nobody can understand me." Bella continued, and her voice sounded a little raspy. "Sometimes I come to and I'm an animal and I'm being slaughtered. I just keep being reborn into hell."

"Fuck." Emmett let out a disgusted noise. Esme didn't even bother to scold him for his language.

"No wonder she isn't sleeping." Rosalie sounded pained and Esme looked over to see Emmett rest a hand on Rose's shoulder.

"Are these dreams always the same? What happens when you have one?" Carlisle asked.

"They are mostly the same, and I wake up with my heart racing and I can't sleep. If I manage I just have another one. That's why I want a sleeping pill, I won't last much longer on the hour or two of restless sleep I'm getting. Even if I'm trapped in the nightmares, I have to get some sleep, or I'll start bursting into tears for no reason, or I'll stumble down the stairs or something. I don't want to wait until it gets that bad."

"Have you had nightmares before?"

"Some last summer." Bella spoke softly.

"She's too nervous, I think it's more than that." Jasper added.

"The Poor thing." Esme whispered, her heart aching to know the girl was going through so much just to sleep.

"Why does she have nightmares?" Alice asked, sounding bewildered.

"I'd guess she feels helpless." Jasper spoke up. He'd taken a few advanced degrees in Psychology. "Seems to be a theme in the dreams she's sharing."

"She wants help and nobody is hearing her." Emmett spoke softly. "Why doesn't Bella bear just ask for help? We'd listen."

"It's not so simple with dreams. She may not even be aware of what is causing this." Jasper explained. The room went quiet at that, but Esme became more determined than ever to make sure Bella knew that Esme was willing to be that help, that shoulder to cry on, no matter what was bothering the girl.

"Aside from the nightmares, are you having any other odd dreams?" Carlisle asked. "Or moments of déjà vu? Could you be having trouble because memories are coming back?"

"Or strange psychic powers." Emmett muttered the underlying question Carlisle really wanted answered.

"No, no, nothing."

"She had a reaction to that question." Jasper moved a few steps toward the stairs and stared up. "She became nervous for just a moment."

"What could that mean?" Emmett asked before Esme could.

"Too many things to pinpoint at the moment." He spoke.

"But it could mean she's having visions." Alice spoke flatly.

"Or she's starting to remember and doesn't like what she's seeing." Rosalie added.

"Sleeping pills aren't really what I'd prefer to use to deal with an issue like this. You would benefit more from some therapy. Didn't anyone suggest that after your accident?"

"Sure they did, but there wasn't much to say." Bella sighed so heavily Esme ached to be in the room to comfort the girl. "I don't want to go that route."

"Fear, frustration, helplessness." Jasper listed out reactions. "I believe she thinks that will make things worse." He interpreted the girl and Esme frowned. Bella had to know doctors were there to help.

"You're going through a lot Bella. Few people can even understand what you're experiencing having to relearn your own life." Carlisle spoke gently, his compassion easy to hear and Esme hoped he got through to her.

"I need to tell her." Alice spoke so quietly and Esme turned to see pain in Alice's eyes. "She must feel so alone, I need to tell her about me." Esme didn't think it could hurt, it might even help both of them. It didn't fit with the fiction they'd created for themselves in Forks though. They'd claimed to have adopted Alice young.

"Then tell her." Esme spoke firmly, and quietly, as she stared up towards the office where Carlisle was warning Bella about the side effects of the pills he was giving her. They'd watch her carefully tonight, because Carlisle was talking about sleep walking, sleep talking, difficulty waking up. He was also telling her he was only giving her a few, that she needed to not become dependent on them. "Tell her we lied to the whole town if you have to." After Bella's problems at her last school, the family lying to protect Alice wouldn't seem odd at all.

"She is so relieved he is giving her those pills. It's powerful. She was desperate for the help sleeping." Jasper spoke up as the door upstairs opened. They all moved into place, to pretend they weren't all listening in.

"I'll go fill her prescription." Esme offered, knowing everyone else was needed to see if the girl had powers. She was the one least likely to be missed for that, and she wanted Bella sleeping well tonight.

…..

** Bella PoV**

Bella found herself tugged gently to the dining room table when she got downstairs. Jasper was sitting there with Rosalie in front of him and a stack of cards. "Playing poker?" she asked, but something seemed off.

"Actually I'm seeing if I'm more psychic than Emmett." Rosalie gave her a small smile. Bella tilted her head a little and stared at the cards, sure she'd misheard that.

"These here are for testing ESP." Jasper told her gently and flipped one over to show a triangle was on it. "If someone guesses the next card before I pull it up, that might be precognition. Next round I stare at the card and see if someone can guess what I'm seeing,"

"Telepathy." Bella muttered quietly, but it was strange that they'd play these games.

"Yes." He nodded and then focused on the cards while Alice took the seat across from Bella and they got to watch Rosalie attempt what Alice could have done so easily. Rose proved to not be precognitive, before Jasper turned to her. "Your turn."

"What, no," Bella shook her head and chuckled. "I'm not even close to being a precog."

"You don't know, give it a try." Alice told her and she had a soft pleading look. Bella stared at her a moment and realized that this was a test for her. Something Bella did made them think she might be like Alice. She wasn't really sure what she could have done, but she turned to stare at the cards stacked in front of Jasper.

With a heavy sigh Bella turned her chair slightly to face Jasper and she waited for the first card. There was no point in not trying, because she knew this wasn't her gift. Her gift was a lot less showy, she was immune to mental powers and there was no fun card game for that one. They tested her for precog, and then Bella watched in amusement as Alice had her turn and the small grimaces Alice made once in a while let Bella count correctly when Alice was being wrong on purpose.

Her amusement was what made Jasper give her an odd look and Bella tried to not pay as much attention to Alice's test after that searching look. He clearly could tell she knew when Alice would be wrong, even if she never did well with the cards herself. Bella found herself a little lost as to what to do, because the vampires clearly thought something was off about her.

"Bella?" Alice spoke up softly, and drew Bella's attention back to her. "How about another round, you and me, whoever gets the most right gets to pick our next movie when we go out."

"Against you?" Bella spoke in shock and her tone said it all, it was insane and she froze as she realized her mistake. "You'll cheat." She added and glanced at Jasper, trying to fix her mistake. "He made signals for you or something."

Emmett chuckled from somewhere behind her. "Twenty bucks on Bella Bear." Bella turned to give him a sharp look. He was throwing money away and he knew it.

"Sorry Bella, but I'm going to have to bet on Alice with this one." Rosalie told her with what should have been a mysterious smile, but Bella just let out a huff of air.


	29. Chapter 29

**Jasper Pov**

Bella had some odd little feelings of amusement as Alice did her card game, and Jasper felt like they needed to switch this up a little, to explore what he was sensing in Bella. "Alice, don't hold back on the first three." He whispered very quietly. "Make it look as easy as it really is for you."

"She'll assume I really am cheating." Alice told him and Jasper shuffled the cards and glanced at Bella. The girl felt resigned, there was a hint of defeat on her already, and that shouldn't be. They all knew better than to actually bet against Alice, but Bella shouldn't know. Even Emmett's bet was only with Rosalie, and so it was money that wasn't really moving, because they shared that bank account.

"Alice goes first." Jasper said and started to pull the first card up.

"Circle." Alice barely waited for it to leave the deck, but he could feel her apprehension in doing this. He flipped it over to prove Alice was right and kept his attention on Bella. No surprise, no amazement, no amusement at the lucky guess.

As he pulled the next card up he felt her indecision, her focus. "Star." Bella spoke quietly and sighed when he turned it over to show a triangle.

"Waves." Alice spoke even before he moved to pull the next card, taking him seriously in trying to prove something, but he wondered if Alice was trying to also prove she wasn't cheating because she didn't wait for Jasper to get any idea of the card. Jasper could feel Bella's suspicion when he took up the card and turned it to show waves, but it wasn't anger, it was caution, and an odd taste of confusion and concern, but he didn't sense the amazement he would expect by this time.

He nodded toward Bella and reached for her card. "Square." Bella spoke and he turned it to show a square. He felt the surprise at that, at one single correct answer, when it wasn't there when Alice had two. He wanted to see if Bella was at all thrown by three right answers from Alice.

Alice had an odd expression on her face as she stared at the deck and Jasper sensed some surprise. "Star, and Bella's is a Circle." Alice said with certainty and he turned the first card to show a star.

"Bella?" Jasper asked for her guess on her card.

"Circle." Bella felt confident in that choice and he turned the card to show a circle.

"She bet on me." Alice whispered and stared at the circle card. "No matter what I considered saying that card was she always was going to just repeat what I said." Jasper could understand why Bella did that, given the way Alice was calling them out, that wasn't the interesting part at all. Never once was Bella surprised.

"Cute, so now that you showed me you can cheat nicely." Bella spoke and he could see how someone would assume that, but he wasn't sure Bella believed that. He couldn't be sure though, and that irritated him. They had never had to rely on him for something like this, they'd always had Edward. Now that Edward was no longer an option Jasper was brushing off rusty skills from before he'd joined the family and was trying to interpret feelings to gain some idea of what someone was thinking. It was far too imprecise. He couldn't just say this was too risky that Bella was hiding something, because everyone loved her, and he did like her, he hadn't been around a human enough to actually like them since he was turned. No one wanted to believe that whatever Bella was hiding was something dangerous, except for Edward who many seemed to assume was paranoid because for once he couldn't read someone's mind. "How about we try it for real."

The 'real' game lasted for ten cards each and Alice only let herself win by one, but Jasper did notice his mate didn't let herself lose.

They continued on to the telepathy round and other than Alice, who had to toss the game, no one did very well with it either. They had more planned, but Esme returned with Bella's pills and some groceries for making dinner. Bella was a little too relieved to see her and she quickly made an offer to help Esme cook. One that held pleading eyes and Esme caved even though she wasn't supposed to. They'd have to wait until after dinner to try more, and they had to continue to play to not seem suspicious.

…..

** Bella Pov**

Bella wasn't sure Esme had thought out dinner enough when she saw the steaks come out of the bag, but she went along with it. Bella seasoned the steaks while Esme peeled potatoes. This was going to be a mess, Bella was sure everyone would need a Ziploc bag to hide their potatoes in, because otherwise the floor was going to get it. Esme also had fresh broccoli, which would need to be sliced, but given how tired Bella was, Esme wasn't letter her operate any knives. Bella wasn't going to argue that point.

"You do know, dear, that if you ever just need someone to talk to," Esme spoke softly as she looked at her over the kitchen island. "I'm here for you."

"Thank you." Bella spoke softly, unsure of what to say to that offer.

"You can always call, any time, and we could even go out to coffee." Esme looked at her with slightly wider eyes, and Bella felt the sincerity in the brunette vampire. It was almost a tempting offer, if her secrets weren't dangerous to them all, Bella might even consider it.

"I like spending time with you Esme, but just so you know, coffee is not my thing." Bella tried to turn the conversation with a small smile. "I don't mind some teas." It worked, because then Esme was asking what types of tea she liked. Bella wondered if some would make their way onto Esme's shopping list if Bella ever was able to visit again. Maybe they'd get to the point where she could at least come over when Edward went out hunting, or perhaps he'd gain enough control to be in the same house but just stay on a different floor. She didn't really want to spend any time with him, but she liked being here.

Dinner was much like the other one she'd had here. Conversation flowed quickly and her eyes followed the talker to give everyone a chance to pretend to eat. It was really hard not to rest her head on her hand, but it would be bad manners, so Bella struggled to stay alert and to follow the talker's voice even if it was growing harder to pay attention to the words.

"Are you going to eat that? You've just been holding it in the air for a minute." Emmett spoke softly from beside her and Bella blinked and noticed her fork full of potatoes in front of her.

"Oh, sorry." She muttered and tried to focus on eating for a little while. She did notice the others went quiet for a moment.

Since she'd lost track of the conversation she was surprised when Alice said, "Do you think the ghosts exist, like in ghost busters?"

Her potatoes become a breathing obstacle as she inhaled sharply at her words and the following coughing fit had someone standing up from their seat, but Bella was too focused on coughing to check and see who. Once she was done coughing she took a couple breaths to make sure it was really done.

"Are you okay?" Alice looked a bit guilty and Bella gave her a weak smile.

"Sure, I'm fine. Just went down the wrong pipe." Bella reached for her glass to take a sip, and she willed her blush to go away, but it wasn't working. Embarrassed, Bella focused on her food again and pretended not to hear Alice's tense hiss as she put some in her mouth. Poor little vampire was going to have a food phobia because of Bella. Bella made very sure not to choke on that bite, and things started to relax around the table again.

Once Bella was completely done with that mouthful Jasper spoke up with a friendly smile. "So you didn't answer Alice, do you think the dead are still floating around around as Caspers?"

Bella sighed heavily. "I think I have no idea how death works." She used to think she knew, but dying proved she was clueless. "No idea at all." She felt odd sitting here with them, knowing they all probably thought they knew death, but she was the only one to have ever actually finished dying. They just got suspended before they could manage the task. "It could certainly happen; I guess those would be the really unlucky ones." She muttered and ate some steak. She could imagine that if that had been here she would probably have ended up haunting that house she never got to live in. An eternity of seeing people decorate it wrong, she almost chuckled at that tiny, irritating torture it would be.

"You think of ghosts as just unlucky?" Jasper asked her and Bella paused before taking what she was thinking was going to be her last bite of the dinner.

"I think you're supposed to be mindwiped and used again." Bella admitted to her new theory. "Kind of like reformatting the hard drive and sticking it in a new computer." Her 'hard drive' hadn't been reformatting right at all, she didn't know why, and her 'new computer' wasn't really as new as they should have been. Perhaps those problems were related. "So that means we get endless opportunities to screw up our lives in numerous ways, and never learn from our mistakes, because we don't remember them." A few people gave her odd or concerned looks and Bella tried to remember the original question so she could get off this topic. "A ghost will just have forever to regret what they never did, never had, and never will have. Without a body that actually exists, what else could they do? They can't find a new purpose, create something even out of a shitty life, they are just stuck."

When Bella glanced around the table she noticed that Rosalie wasn't looking too well, her fist was clenched around her fork enough that Bella bet she shouldn't look at it when Rosalie actually opened her hand, because it would be warped and mangled. "Even being reborn into a shitty life has it's opportunities for some moments of happiness." Bella spoke, but she tugged her eyes back to Jasper as if she were still talking to him, but she was really thinking of Rosalie. "Given the options, I'd gamble and get in line for round two rather than haunt my old life and spend every moment wishing it was still mine." It was a decision she'd made, been forced to make. "Doesn't mean it would be hard though."

"Wow, so you really believe in reincarnation." Carlisle spoke up and Bella felt her stomach churn a little at the word, but she just swallowed hard and nodded. "Not heaven and hell?"

"I know you have that big cross." Bella had seen it, and read about it. "I'm not sure you'll like my opinions."

"It's a family heirloom, not a statement to my narrow mindedness." Carlisle told her gently. "I can hear other beliefs and not be threatened by them."

Esme got up from the table and was starting to clear the plates. A few of the others helped her and Bella felt uncomfortable not helping, but Esme's hand rested on her shoulder and patted her for a moment as she went passed her.

"I think heaven and hell were made up to control the masses. God may or may not exist, but whatever religion tells us about the afterlife is there for their reason." Bella sighed, "I mean think about it, according to religion if you don't do what they think is right then you go to hell. It sounds a little like a grumpy parent sending their kid to their room without dinner or anything to do. If you misbehave you'll be punished, but then the people in the church decided what was considered misbehaving, and they pretend God told them that was on the list." Bella was even surprised at herself. Apparently lack of sleep was a lot like alcohol, because usually it took a few drinks to make her talk like this. She glanced around the table to see Jasper and Rosalie were still with them. Maybe she was more entertaining than she thought, since she had earned an audience.

"So you believe that after you die you just start over again." Carlisle sounded a little dismayed, "having learned nothing from the time before." Bella got the sense that Carlisle objected to not learning, more than her claims that reincarnation was real.

Alice saved the day by coming in with a board game, and Bella thought it was better than continuing this and putting her foot in her mouth. She managed to doubt that assessment when the box was put on the table and she saw it was an Ouija board. "Since you aren't religious, you shouldn't have any problem playing with this then." Alice grinned at her as if she'd won an argument.

Alice set it up and read the instructions out loud. Bella noticed that Carlisle and Esme didn't participate, and there was no way that Emmett wasn't in control when he and Rosalie gave it a turn, it was his sense of humor to have the 'ghost' claim to have 'died' from an STD given to him by his pet sheep. Esme scolded him for his sense of humor, so clearly he fooled no one.

It was a disaster, and boring, so it was no surprise to Bella that it didn't work for her. She wondered if they really thought it might. Instead she found herself staring blankly at the board as others took their turn.

"Here, you don't look like you'll last much longer anyhow." Esme spoke quietly into her ear and Bella was handed a small pill. She stared at it a moment, before swallowing it. Esme had to hand her the glass of water, because Bella hadn't even waited for one. "When you really get tired just go upstairs. Alice said you can stay in her room."

"Thanks." Bella felt a little bad, because it was only 8:30, but she was going to sleep as soon as she was able.

"Come on, you're with me." Alice told her maybe fifteen minutes later and gently tugged Bella into place. Bella blinked a few times, because she suspected she'd managed to fall asleep with her eyes opened for a moment. Bella rested her fingers on the little device as Alice spoke. "Great spirits from beyond, I implore you, what is my real name."

Bella felt her heart ache at the question, and she was surprised Alice would even ask it. It brought to mind all that had to happen in the books for Alice to know. Did Bella's being here make it so she'd never know?

"Are you okay darlin'?" Jasper spoke up and Bella noticed she'd pulled her fingers off the game and she was just staring at Alice helplessly.

"I don't remember my childhood." Alice spoke softly, slowly. "I don't remember my parents, and while I love being a part of this family, sometimes I really wish I knew who I was." Bella felt the tears running down her own cheeks as Alice admitted that.

"I'm so sorry." Bella's voice cracked, and she was, because how could Alice ever find out who she was now?

"You don't have to be." Alice spoke and Bella noticed the helpless look the little vampire gave over Bella's shoulder to someone.

"Maybe it's time for you to try and get some sleep." Esme spoke softly from her side. Bella nodded, but when she tried to stand up her legs folded under her and Esme had to move a little too fast to catch her. "Oh dear, Carlisle is this normal?"

"I didn't take into account how exhausted she already was. Perhaps she should have taken the pill when she got into the bed. She'll be fine, but someone might want to carry her upstairs." He spoke and Bella felt Esme start to gather her up, but Emmett moved to their side before Esme just lifted her up herself.

"I got her." Emmett said and Bella was suddenly up high. "Come on Bella Bear, let's get you to bed."

…..

** Emmett Pov**

Emmett moved carefully, not wanting to jostle Bella too much as he made his way up the stairs. She looked so tired and so delicate in his arms. Her heart was slow, and her face still had tear tracks on it. "I'm going to put you in bed." He told her and she gave him a weak smile.

"I hear it's always better when the woman's awake Emmett, remember that." Her words were a little slurred and he shook his head at her drugged teasing. Rosalie made some disgusted sound that he knew had more to do with the idea of anyone taking advantage of Bella at this moment.

"I'll get her pajamas out of Alice's room and get her changed. Just set her on our bed." Emmett nodded and maneuvered Bella into their room easily. Alice didn't object to the clear stealing of Bella, because Alice had planned to keep her in her bed for the night, but that was before Bella was drugged. Emmett would sit in the chair in the corner tonight, to make sure Bella didn't try and stand up and then collapse again. Apparently she wasn't going to be able to sleep walk, which was good, but it didn't mean she might not try.

He set her down carefully on the bed and then squatted down to try and very carefully until her shoes. "I can do that." Bella tried to say, but her words were slurred and when she tried to sit up she wasn't able to.

"I'm sure you could, if you weren't already high as a kite." He gave her a small smile as he victoriously removed one shoe and held it up to show her. He set it down beside the bed and started to work on the other one. "You double tie these, afraid they'll come undone?" He muttered as he tried very hard to be gentle.

"This body tends to be clumsy, I have to be careful." Bella mumbled and Emmett grinned at her oddness. He set the second shoe down and looked up to see Rosalie giving him a soft smile, while holding Bella's bag in one hand. She'd just stopped in the doorway to watch him struggle with Bella's shoes.

"How about you go get her a glass of water, the pill might make her thirsty overnight. I'll finish what you started." Rose told him gently and then moved to put the bag down, before pulling him into a kiss. "You were a very good boy, I'd reward you but it seems the bed is already occupied." She teased.

"In a half hour she probably wouldn't notice if we used the other half of the bed." He smirked, and the way Rosalie's eyes moved to Bella made him chuckle. "Are you trying to decide if I'm right?"

"Go, get the water." She smiled at him and then started to pull clothes out of the bag. "I'll let you know when you can come back in."

"So, I'll have to know you were with another woman, taking her clothes off, and I wasn't here to see it?" He teased, before moving his head out of the way of the pillow being tossed at him, before he left the room.

"Come on Bella, let me help you sit up." Rose's voice was soft and caring and he smiled as he made his way down the stairs.

"I want to tell her, Rose, but I don't know how." Bella's slurred voice spoke up after a sounds of a struggle to get that shirt situation taken care of. Emmett had the glass of water in his hand waiting for the signal and he looked around to see Alice slowly putting away the Ouija board.

"What do you want to tell who?" Rosalie asked, "Lift your hips and I'll pull your pants down."

"Are you going to have sex with me?" Bella asked and it sounded confused, which made it hilarious.

"I'm just helping you change for bed sweetie." Rosalie's voice was just a little tight, like she was trying not to laugh in front of Bella.

"Oh, okay." Bella spoke slowly, as if she wasn't sure she hadn't guessed correctly the first time and she didn't know what she really should be doing at all. Emmett started to wonder if it might be fun to try and keep her up for a little while, to get her talking.

"Does that feel good?" Rosalie spoke and Emmett smirked as he imagined what could be going on in there, even though there was no chance it was.

"They aren't doing that." Jasper sounded amused as he burst Emmett's bubble and Emmett gave him a disgusted look.

"Let a man dream, damn you." He teased. He noticed Esme was hiding a little smirk of her own behind her hand, so he wasn't going to get scolded for that one.

"I want to tell her, but I can't." Bella whispered tensely and Emmett frowned.

"What do you want to tell her?" Rosalie spoke slowly, catching on that this was important as well.

"Her name is Mary Alice Branden."

There was a gasp and Emmett turned his head to see Alice dropping the Ouija board box on the ground, her eyes wide in shock.

"Shit, did she just…" Emmett muttered and turned to look at the others.

"Where is Mary Alice from?" Jasper spoke up.

"Where is Mary Alice from Bella?" Rosalie repeated so Bella could hear it.

"I'm tired." Bella sounded even worse and they all stood tensely waiting for something.

"She's out." Rosalie told them, and then a moment later she was downstairs beside him. Emmett just stared in shock at Alice, who was frozen, unmoving, and clearly shocked.

"Did that just really happen?" Emmett had to ask, because to him it sounded like Bella had just blurted out Alice's real name, but there was no way she knew what that was, no one did.


	30. Chapter 30

**Bella Pov**

Soft, that was the first thought she registered, and then the smell, oh, that was nice. Bella slowly opened her eyes to see the room was dark, but there was just enough light coming in from under the door for her to tell which room she was in. She hadn't needed the hint, Rosalie's scent was different than Alice's, both nice, but Rose was just a bit more flowery, ironically enough.

Her mouth felt like it was glued shut and Bella groaned a little as she struggled to grasp the edge of the sheet to pull it off. "What do you need?" A soft voice spoke slowly and Bella gasped and widened her eyes to try and see in the dark.

"Alice?" It wasn't Alice's room, so it was a little odd she was here.

"Yes, what do you want?" Alice sounded strange, too calm, too intense, all at the same time, and it sounded like she was in the corner chair, but why would she just sit in here, in the dark, all night?

"I'm a little thirsty." Bella admitted quietly, her voice softer, younger, as she wondered why she was suddenly nervous around Alice.

"I have a glass of water." Alice sounded like she was moving easily around the room. The light in the walk in closet went on. "I thought the overhead light my blind you." Alice explained as she moved around to the side of the bed and sat down beside Bella. Bella tried to reach out for the glass Alice held out for her, but her arms weren't under her control, she bumped Alice in the elbow when she tried to take the glass. "Oh, here," Alice set the glass down on the night table and then Bella was easily pulled up into a sitting position. "I'll help you." And Alice did, she helped Bella sit up and helped her bring her shaky hands to her mouth once she had managed to wrap her hands around the glass. "You've been having a strange reaction to the sleeping pill."

Bella slowed her frantic swallowing, as the water became less urgent and frowned as she lowered the glass to see Alice staring at her. "What?"  
>"Yes, it seems the sleeping pill makes you clairvoyant." Alice spoke slowly and stared into Bella's eyes. "Please Bella, I've been waiting for hours for you to wake up enough to talk. Where am I from?" It sounded like Alice could cry any moment and Bella stared at her stunned. What the hell happened? She remembered watching the others play with the board and she thought she might remember Emmett carrying her, but this was a huge red sign that she'd forgotten some of the night. She struggled and slowly she remembered Esme almost picking her up, and she remembered Rosalie pulling her pants down. Bella blushed at that memory, but then she remembered her pain and her guilt and her wishing she could just tell Alice what Alice wanted to know. "I said something." Bella whispered as she believed she had only thought it.<p>

"It's okay that you have powers Bella, you aren't the only one. I have visions, I can see the future, but I don't know my past. I need you to know my past." Alice whispered her plea and Bella froze, completely confused and it didn't help that her mind was still fuzzy. "I'm Mary Alice Branden and I'm from," Alice spoke slowly.

Bella felt helpless, but the pain in Alice's expression was all she could think about, "Biloxi Mississippi." She whispered as quietly as she could.

"And I lost my memory because," Alice pushed and Bella felt tears well up in her eyes again. How could she tell Alice this, but Alice was pleading, she looked like if she could make tears she'd be crying. Would Alice even say she was a vampire to get her answers, she'd already admitted to too much. Could Bella pretend not to remember anything that happened over the night? Could she even remember it, she felt disconnected and her body wasn't really listening or moving like she wanted it too. She was clearly still drugged. The pills were helping, she wasn't having nightmares, but she wasn't sure this was an improvement.

"Please, Bella, try. Mary Alice lost her memory because," Alice's voice caught as she said that.

Bella loved her, Alice was sweet and kind and never angry or upset and this was all wrong. If Bella didn't give it to her, then she'd have to hear it from James. That idea was horrifying, she didn't want Alice near the monster that tried to hunt her bubbly friend when she was human. "A dark room and shock therapy." She couldn't elaborate much. "Your visions scared your family and you were sent to an asylum."

"Oh God." Alice slumped and the glass became shaky in just Bella's hands, without Alice helping. "Do you know anything else?"

Bella couldn't even think of a way to clean this up. "A serial killer was hunting you and you knew it but no one would listen and a doctor with weird eyes saved you and got you out of there."

Alice turned to her and started to pull Bella closer, but the glass fell from her hands. Alice moved so fast to catch it in the air and she set it down, before moving toward Bella again, her arms helping to hold her up. "Thank you Bella."

"I don't want to be locked up." Bella found herself saying, her mind thinking about her own secrets. It was then that she realized that her mental filter really was down. Perhaps she hadn't really made any decisions about talking.

"No, no, never you. I'll never let anyone lock you up." Alice whispered and held her so tight it might actually leave bruises. "Oh God, Bella, thank you. Thank you." Alice muttered into Bella's neck and Bella managed to wrap her arms around Alice as well.

Her body was held still, very firmly, by Alice, but Bella could feel an overwhelming dizzy tiredness that told her she wasn't going to stay up much longer. She only had one more shot at saying things she shouldn't know. "Don't trust James, he tried to kill you. He killed your doctor. I don't want him near you."

"Bella, do you know anything about James? How does he kill people?" Alice asked, and Bella decided to surrender to the black spots filling her vision at that moment. It was much safer to stop answering questions now.

…

** Esme Pov**

"Bella." Alice called again and Esme started to enter Rosalie's room, to see Alice holding an unconscious Bella in her arms. They'd all heard Bella wake up, and Bella managed to shock them all again with her power.

"I'm sorry Alice, but she took a full pill. Perhaps she should have only had half, but she isn't going to be able to answer all your questions." Esme spoke softly, gently, to Alice. They'd never seen her as lost, and as desperate as she'd been once she realized that Bella knew something and wasn't able to be woken up to make her tell it. Alice hadn't left the room since she'd gone in there to try and wake Bella up earlier, and when that didn't work she just stayed, for hours, in the dark, waiting.

"She knew, she knew who I was." Alice stared up at Esme, Bella still held tightly in her arms. Esme stepped closer to help Alice settle Bella back onto the bed. It was actually hard to get Alice to let her go. "She said James was a serial killer, I think he was a vampire."

"Are you doing okay Alice, this is, well, this is a bit of a shock." Esme studied Alice to see she did look a bit messier, her hair had clearly been tugged on a bit, and her expression was so stunned, and so confused, it hurt to see.

"Jasper is helping me." Alice admitted, but then again, Jasper had to stay out of this room because of how Alice was so possessive of Bella. It was affecting him if he got too close. Alice had almost been ready to fight them if they'd tried to get her to leave Bella's side tonight, she was sure Bella would say more, and so they'd let her stay, but they were monitoring her carefully.

"Are you ready to come out now?" Esme risked asking.

"She shouldn't be alone. She can't control her body very well." Alice spoke slowly and Esme noticed that Alice started petting Bella's hair distractedly.

"Emmett or Rosalie could watch out for her." Esme offered, because she really didn't think leaving Alice alone in the dark was a good move after what Bella just revealed. "But you know you don't need to actually be in here to watch out for her, and we all were able to hear when she woke up. She doesn't need someone right here for us to make sure she's okay."

"I'd be happy to watch out for Bella Bear." Emmett offered up from the main room. It was sweet of him, but from the look on Alice's face she wasn't ready to leave the human girl just yet.

"We do need to talk about this." Esme told Alice gently. "I really think you need to be with us for that meeting." Esme also didn't say it out loud, but they were going to have to decide what to do about Edward as well.

"I just," Alice stared down at Bella, and the hand she had on the girl. "I just need a few more minutes." Alice sounded shaky, and Esme nodded, before moving for the door. When she turned to look back into the room she could see Alice moving to lie down beside Bella, holding the girl in her arms.

"She's afraid and when she was awake, even when she was telling me everything I wanted to know, she was debating about pretending she didn't know." Alice whispered as she spooned the girl from behind. "She must feel like she's risked so much for me, but she decided to trust me."

Esme paused as she caught on to what Alice was hinting at. "You want to trust her. You want to tell her." It felt like Esme couldn't even grasp what she was feeling in that moment. She hated lying to Bella, but she'd rather do that then not have the girl around at all. Bella might not ever tell, but that wouldn't mean she would feel safe around them ever again.

"Edward is going to use the fact she knows things about me to claim we need to leave immediately, and you know it. He's going to insist, he's going to push and push, and we can't leave her. He's going to come up with a hundred reasons we should leave, but the big argument, the one that we have no answer to is that she may find out and we don't know how she'd react to that. If we can decide to tell her, to honestly decide, I can see what will happen."

"We can't honestly make a decision like that without him." Esme spoke softly, but she also just didn't know how she'd vote on something like that. "There are laws, and I don't ever want Bella brought to the Volturi's attention. Aside from what they'd do to us, I can't even begin," Esme's voice cracked. "The risk is so great." She finished, and turned to close the door.

"I won't leave her. You know you won't either. Something needs to be decided." Alice spoke through the door and Esme took a shaky breath as she turned to head back into her office.

…..

** Emmett Pov**

It was two o'clock in the morning, in Forks it was last call for alcohol in the town bar. When Emmett looked around the dining room table at his family, they looked like they could use a tall glass, even though vampires couldn't drink anything but blood. Esme had a fabric sample in her hand that she was twisting a bit nervously. Carlisle was constantly sneaking glances at the chair that Edward would normally be in. Rosalie was not even trying to unclench her fists. Jasper's jaw was clenched against the feelings of the rest of them.

No one was talking, so Emmett decided to just get things started. "So Bella Bear is smarter than the average bear." He mocked the yogi bear cartoon.

"This isn't funny Emmett." Rosalie scolded him, but she went on to say more so it worked. "I heard what you said Alice, but I can't bring her into this world like that. There are laws, and it's punishable by death. Not just ours, hers as well. We don't have the right to make that decision for her. Even if we never got caught, she already barely fits in her human world, we'd be ripping that away from her."

Emmett felt disappointed at that moment, because he fully planned to support the idea that they could tell Bella anything. Part of him even thought Rosalie would be right there with him. Rose loved Bella bear at least as much as Emmett did.

"I hate to take Edward's place on the topic of Bella, but we can't ignore that if she can see Alice's past, she might, eventually, start to see other things as well." Jasper spoke up.

"Like me taking down a real bear." Emmett muttered, and wondered how confused that would make his little human friend.

"Exactly. We don't know how her powers work, but she's already in tune with Alice. I'm sure if Alice gets a bear it would be even more confusing for her to see." Jasper added and Emmett nodded, he was sure that would look stranger still to her.

"But doesn't Bella seem to mostly see the past?" Esme asked.

"She warned me about James, I don't know what her limits are." Alice spoke up. "Apparently I'm going to meet the vampire that hunted me at some point and she didn't want me to do it without being warned."

"So you don't think it was a real serial killer?" Emmett asked.

"He'd be rather too old by now to be a threat if he were Emmett." Rosalie explained and Emmett grimaced. He'd been more focused on other things, so he didn't pay attention to that little fact. "The only good thing about her comment about James is that she didn't know what to call him. If she'd seen him kill, I think she might have put it together what he was."

"With her open mindedness about the paranormal, she'll be likely to believe it when she sees it." Carlisle added the warning. "We've moved away from places for less reason than this."

"We've never had a good reason to stay before either." Esme added. "Before Bella, one place was just as good as another. I don't agree with Alice that we should tell, Bella already has so much she's dealing with, but I do agree that we can't leave." Esme looked firm in her convictions as she looked around the room. "She's already chosen to trust Rose and Alice more than she's ever probably trusted anyone. She told them both secret things she knew she shouldn't be able to know, and sure, she was under the influence at the time, but it still happened and now we have to deal with that. Who else could she trust like this? Charlie? The man is kind, he is a good father, but he is struggling with just dealing with a normal teenage girl. This would be so far out of his realm of experience he would be completely lost. Who else does she have that might even be somewhat understanding?"

"I think you're preaching to the choir Esme. No one wants to leave." Emmett spoke up.

"Is that true?" Carlisle asked and Emmett looked around the room when he did. "If we're not willing to risk telling her, are we willing to risk her just finding out? With what we've seen that is a possibility."

"How do we know she doesn't already know?" Emmett asked.

Rosalie gave a humorless chuckle. "She's willing to sleep here. I think that says enough about her cluelessness so far." Rosalie seemed sure, but Emmett wasn't so convinced that Bella would be that afraid of them is she found out. She knew them now, they were all friends.

"I never sense any fear or apprehension." Jasper added quietly. "She lets some of us get so close to her. How many times have you seen her hug one of us and her neck is right there is our faces. She doesn't hesitate."

"I would never." Esme spoke up firmly, her expression horrified. Esme was the recipient of a lot of those hugs, so was Emmett and he never once was tempted to take a bite. Sure the smell was amazing, mouthwatering, but he was never tempted to actually do it. He was even proud of that, having a human best friend had improved his control a lot.

"I wasn't saying anyone would, just saying that if she knew, she would be more cautious." Jasper told them. Emmett guessed he could understand that. A human might be friends with a vampire, but neck exposure was pushing it a bit.

"We're starting to get a little off topic here." Carlisle spoke up. "I see a problem in how people are appearing to vote. Let's just get this out there and deal with it." He looked around the room. "Who wants to tell Bella that we are vampires?"

Emmett gave an apologetic look towards Rose as he raised his hand. He noticed Alice was the only other one with hers up.

"Okay, who wants to move before she finds out we are vampires?" Carlisle spoke and this time Jasper got a dark look from Alice even as he raised his hand.

"The law is clear, and I don't want to risk this." Jasper explained softly, but once the vote was done his hand was down fast.

"You didn't vote to leave." Esme made that a question and Carlisle paused before putting out another voting topic.

"I probably should have, I was tempted, but she is a human with a power and I just want to know more before deciding to leave." Carlisle admitted. Emmett didn't like the sound of that at all. If Carlisle voted that way and Jasper did, they knew Edward's vote. He wished he could count on Rosalie to stay firmly on the Bella side, but he just didn't know if she would. Edward might find a way to manipulate things to make Rosalie feel like staying would hurt Bella more and if he did then it would be four voting to leave. This was not good at all.

Emmett shared a look with Alice over the table and made the decision that they needed to talk at some point before Edward came back. Alice nodded subtly back.

"Here is where I see the problem." Carlisle spoke and Emmett turned his eyes away from Alice to pay attention. "Normally when someone is about to find out, or we suspect we might be discovered we move. There is a very real possibility we will face that decision here. If Bella looks like she might find out, or finds out, how many vote to move?"

Emmett kept his hand down firmly, and looked around the room to see Jasper and Carlisle were alone, but Rosalie's face looked too pained, her hand waivered in her lap. Carlisle spoke up, thankfully, before Rose's hand was able to betray them. "You see the problem here? We vote to not tell, but we vote to do nothing if she figures it out."

"If we could just vote to do it, to take an action, I could see what would happen." Alice growled.

"We'd have to mean it Alice, and I don't think I could." Rosalie spoke up softly. "If she finds out, she's trapped, never to be the same again."

"She isn't a normal human Rose, she's trapped regardless. She's a girl without a world. Apparently just like I was when I was human, and tonight we all heard what happened to me." Alice said and then got up. "I need to hunt."

"I don't think she should be alone right now." Esme spoke up once Alice was out of the room. Emmett looked at the pained look on his Angel's face and didn't think she should be either.

Emmett knew this was their chance to talk, Alice probably made it for them, but it was hard to volunteer when Rosalie was hurting. Still, he followed Alice's trail into the woods.


	31. Chapter 31

**Emmett Pov **

He caught up to her easily enough, and Alice was just sitting on a log waiting. "I need you to do something for me Emmett." Alice spoke as soon as he came to a stop in front of her. "I need you to decide to tell Bella the truth, in spite of the vote, behind everyone's back, I need you to be willing to tell her what we are."

Emmett couldn't help but think about the consequences of that action. The family would be so upset, Rosalie would be so upset.

"You need to mean it Emmett, you need to plan out how you'd tell her." Alice spoke softer. "You need to know that if we don't tell her that Edward will always have something he can use to make us leave her behind. She loves us, and she doesn't trust easily. I can tell you that if we really left, it would not make her life better. She'd be unprotected, like I was, and I don't want that for her. She's afraid to tell people what she knows, what she can do, because she thinks what happened to me can happen to her. James, she warned me a vampire was coming, but if we aren't here does she just take over what was supposed to be my death? You have a nose, if someone was going to hunt anyone in this town, who would it be?" Emmett growled quietly at the thought, because he knew Bella smelled a hell of a lot better than Jessica or Lauren. "You need to decide to save her from that, you need to decide to tell her what we are so that it can't be used against us."

"I'm supposed to drive her into town on Wednesday so she can apply at the little shops." Emmett started to plan, hoping that Alice's words were just incentive and not really true. They did work though, because he couldn't let anything like that happen to Bella Bear, he couldn't risk it. Bella was strong enough to take the truth. "When we get back to her place I could just sit her down on her bed and tell her I'm a vampire."

Alice went quiet, and he could see her start to frown. "She laughs at you, she doesn't believe you. She tells you that you'd make a better superhero for Halloween."

"I could take her into the woods and smash a boulder in half to show her I'm a vampire." He rethought the plan.

"She thinks you somehow rigged the boulder, she doesn't believe you. She claims to be cold and wants to get home." Alice said slowly. "Try something else really obvious."

"I could lift up the front of my jeep." He was struggling with how to prove himself now.

"She says they have that trick in Universal Studios and she wants you to stop messing with her, you'd make a better Hulk than a vampire anyhow." Alice told him and this time Emmett was getting a little irritated with his Bella bear.

"I could drive us back towards school after she applies everywhere, and walk her up the hill and into the woods, to the place where there is a good view for a couple of miles and I could have her watch me run." Emmett thought he had it this time.

"She won't hike up that hill with you." Alice seemed to be having a very long vision after Emmett just decided to pick her up and run her up that hill. Emmett couldn't believe how hard this was. "It won't work." Alice stared up at him. "Not if you do it."

"So you don't want me to tell her?" Emmett had been starting to look forward to being able to show Bella the cool things he could do.

"I don't understand what's wrong, all your ideas should have worked, but none of them did." Alice sounded just a little irritated herself. "It's like she doesn't want to see, doesn't want to," Alice's words trailed off and she looked at him with a strange expression on her face.

"Alice?" He asked when she was quiet for a little too long.

"It doesn't work if you do it. We'll need to scrap that idea." Alice spoke slowly, but he could tell she was distracted.

"Is that all we needed to do?" Emmett felt like this was one of the lamest meetings he ever had, they didn't decide on anything really.

"Don't let Rosalie dwell on how she thinks Bella's life should be, make her realize what Bella would turn that life into without us. It's when Rosalie starts to romanticize being human that she makes her worst mistakes in my visions." Alice told him and he knew he had the harder task, no matter what Alice set for herself. Rosalie was a bit too attached to what she thought was the 'human life'. "Don't push her too fast, even though it's important, we can't risk having her stick her heels in. You know she can get stubborn at times." Alice sighed. "Have Bella help you. She doesn't need to know why to help you."

"I think I need to have a little talk with Bella." Alice said while shaking her head lightly from side to side.

"You're going to do it?" Emmett asked slowly, stunned that telling was still an option. "Why does she listen to you and not me?" He couldn't help asking the question, a little hurt.

"I'm not going to tell her anything, I'm going to be asking." Alice said firmly and Emmett didn't understand at all what Alice meant. Alice stood up. "I still need to hunt."

"Did you want company?" Emmett asked her, suddenly seeing how fragile she started to look. It had been a hard night for Alice.

"Would you mind horribly if I don't? I just need some time to think about everything." She looked up at him and he nodded. He'd just head back to the house, but he wasn't going to rush. He needed a little time to think as well.

…

**Esme Pov**

Esme stopped at the partially opened door. She'd heard Rosalie go in several minutes ago and she wasn't leaving. It was strange how her daughters just took turns sitting in the dark with Bella, but then Esme would have been in there already if Rose hadn't beat her to it.

"You can come in." Rosalie spoke softly, too softly to ever disturb Bella's sleep. Esme pushed the door open just a little and slipped inside. Standing just inside the room she could see Rosalie sitting on her bed, lightly playing with Bella's hair. The girl was asleep, but she was still gripping the shirt sleeve of the arm Rosalie was leaning on, as if keeping Rosalie there.

"She doesn't seem to want to let you go." Esme spoke softly and smiled.

Rosalie gave a weak smile and then gently moved some hair out of Bella's face, tucking it behind an ear. "She didn't wake up, but she whispered my name. She knows its me." Esme thought that was even better, Rose looked like she needed that. "I love her Esme." Rosalie spoke so softly it was a strain to hear it and Esme stepped further into the room.

"I think most of us do." She told Rose, while smiling at the way Bella's fingers moved just a little, but they wouldn't let go. "In a way I feel like she completes our family."

"How can we even think of telling her that the world is so much scarier than she knows?" Rose asked, her hand tracing Bella's ear so lightly that it seemed too intimate a moment to watch and Esme felt slightly uncomfortable. "I don't like that she might come to fear us, I think it would break my heart." Esme understood that feeling all too well. "But it isn't just enough to vote no, because she has something inside her that tells her things we can't control."

The word 'control' struck a cord in Esme and she paused as she considered it. "We can't control what she learns, or how she reacts. All we can really do is show her we love her so that if or when she gets over the shock she might come back."

"So you would stay." Rosalie spoke without even looking at her and Esme watched Rosalie just stare at Bella.

"Bella needs us, there is no question in my mind that I'll stay. I hate to say it, I hate to even think it, but Bella does not belong in their world." Esme managed not to take a step back when Rosalie tore her eyes off Bella and glared at her.

"You think she belongs in ours?" Rosalie had a bit of a growl to her words.

"I think, sad as it is, that Alice was right. Bella has no world." Esme spoke softly, her words paining her and from the look on Rosalie's face, it pained her as well. Esme studied the human girl's peaceful face, unhappy with the realization that this was usually not how Bella slept. Did her nights consist of visions that scared her? "We don't know the extent of her powers, or what exactly they are, but we do know that there are far more vampires that have to learn how to deal with gifts than humans. Alice, apparently, was an anomaly, but so is Bella. They don't use shock therapy anymore," Esme felt something dark and angry in her rise up when she thought of Alice living the life Bella said she had, "but they do use drugs they don't understand on anything they don't understand. Humans will dope her up to the point she can barely feel anything rather than let her continue to be different. Because of that, part of me wants to claim her into our world." Esme admitted softly. "But the other part of me worries she wouldn't fit here either, that it would be too much for her."

"The drugs have already started." Rosalie reminded her and Esme sighed heavily, while watching Bella sleep.

"She won't talk. Carlisle said that would be better, but now I think her fear of psychologists make more sense." Esme moved forward enough to rest a hand on Bella's blanket covered foot. She pretended not to notice how Rosalie stared at that contact immediately, as if debating allowing it. Her daughters were both too tense, instincts were a little too close to the surface. It was interesting to see that in those moments, Bella was in less danger than ever around them all. "Hopefully this night will at least give Bella someone to talk about what's happening to her. It can't have been easy, keeping it a secret. In some ways her secret is as huge to her as ours is to us."

They stayed in silence for a while, and when Esme thought perhaps she should go, Rosalie spoke softly again. "I just want what's best for Bella, but I don't know what that is."

"I know, I do to." Esme moved her hand to rest it on Rosalie's shoulder, as she looked into her troubled eyes. "If we could ask her, it would be so much simpler, but there is no way to ask without already causing the damage. I think that's part of why I voted the way I did, that and I don't want to see the look of fear on her face." Esme patted Rosalie's shoulder and turned to leave the room.

"Thank you." She heard as she closed the door.

…

**Bella Pov**

She could hear the river, and Bella frowned as that odd sound registered in her mind. Her eyes opened and she stretched slowly, as the night started to come back to her. Her eyes darted to the chair and while she could see the window had been opened, making it possible to hear the river, no one else was with her. She sat up and noticed that the sun was just starting to come up, so it was probably about time to wake up.

Waking up wasn't the problem for once, and the lingering drugs in her system might be the only reason she didn't consider at least checking to see if she could make it out the window, rather than deal with the confusion of last night. God, Alice thought Bella was a clairvoyant, probably they all did by now. It wasn't true, but Bella didn't have a better story to tell in its place. She didn't want to go from simply not talking about it to lying, but what the hell could she even say? It sounded insane.

Bella regretted coming over, and the sleeping pill was very stupid on top of it all, but the look on Alice's face, Bella had no idea what to think about it. Alice was grateful to hear her human life had been hell, just to know. If James didn't exist, and Bella were actually fully awake, maybe she could have made up a better story, a less painful one. Maybe she could have at least broken it to her more gently. Bella took a shaky breath, and tried to keep herself from tearing up.

Bella took a few deep breaths and got herself under control, because she had a decision to make. She could pretend to have forgotten it all, it might be safer. Let them think she didn't even know she knew things.

"Morning sunshine." A voice called out even as the door opened and Bella looked up to see Alice coming in with her normal happy smile. "I know you didn't forget I told you I see the future, so stop trying to plan how to tell me you remember nothing."

"What?" Bella stared for a moment, a bit stunned Alice just blurted that out.

"Yes, first you were planning to apologize for not being more gentle about the news you gave me and then I saw you telling me you slept really well and didn't remember even getting to the bed." Alice tugged the sheet and blanket down off of her, and the cool air was a bit startling. "You were drugged, I'm just grateful you answered my questions, and I don't think you were harsh at all." Alice caressed Bella's cheek as Bella just sat on the bed staring. "And as for pretending you forgot it all, no taking it back. I told you one of my secrets, that's just as big as yours and we're going to be okay." Alice tapped her head. "I know we will."

"You're okay?" Bella whispered, a little disarmed by Alice's attitude. Alice just smiled at her, something gentle and tender in her yellow eyes.

"Yes, I am." The little vampire told her. "You missed breakfast, but Esme saved you some." Alice was still using that 'we already ate excuse' and Bella was almost amused that things seemed almost the same, but Alice was watching her much more carefully.

Once she was dressed and following Alice downstairs, Rosalie stood up from the couch. "Are you okay Bella?" She looked like she'd been waiting to ask and Bella gave her a weak smile.

"Thanks for, well, you know." Bella blushed, remembering Rosalie saw her in her underwear and probably nothing else. Thank god the underwear was new. Alice finished moving into the kitchen.

"It's no problem. The pill hit you harder than we thought." Rosalie moved closer and was studying her eyes. "You still look a little off."

"Yeah, I feel a little off, but I feel better than I did." Bella told her, but the smell surrounding her made her want to lean into Rosalie a little more. It was a little new, her lack of control and Bella struggled to not do something else stupid. She could see concern and Rosalie was moving closer to stare into her eyes again.

"You do know you can trust me right?" Rosalie spoke softly and Bella was surprised. She knew you couldn't talk to one vampire in this house and not have all the others hear it, but perhaps since she wasn't telling them specifically, it made them insecure.

"I do."

"You know, it's okay that you're clairvoyant. I mean, I don't have anything special like that, but we're used to Alice." Rosalie spoke and Bella felt a choking of guilt.

"I'm not." She admitted and saw Rosalie frown. She could see the blonde vampire taking it the wrong way. "It's complicated, but I'm not. It's," Bella sighed heavily and felt nearly a year of staying quiet holding her back. "I can't." She stared at Rosalie helplessly.

"You trust Alice?" Rosalie asked, her voice just a bit cold.

"It's not about trust, I just," Bella felt frustrated that she didn't have even an ability to explain. "I only know what I know, I don't get new info." And that sounded stupid and vague.

"You don't?" Rosalie asked and there was more than a hint of interest, and a small smile. "How does that work?"

"Yes, how does that work?" Alice stood in the doorway staring at her, looking confused. Bella wondered how many vampires were just out of sight listening to this, or why they had all left this to Rosalie and Alice. She also wondered if they were going to school at all today, because it would take forever to get herself out of this.


	32. Chapter 32

**Bella Pov**

Bella took a deep breath and considered the mess she was in. "I can't answer that question easily, quickly." She glanced around the room until she found the clock. "Definitely not a twenty minute conversation."

"How long do you think you need?" Alice asked her and Bella grimaced.

"Until you actually believe me, maybe years." She could hear the whine in her voice and hated that. She struggled to rein that in, "I've never told anyone, no one would believe me."

"I think you'll find we're a bit more open minded. It isn't like this is all new to us." Rosalie spoke softly, gently, and gave a meaningful glance over at Alice as if she were an example. Bella knew her secret would be more complicated than Alice having a power, and perhaps even vampires wouldn't believe her.

"We don't have the time." Bella tried again to stall, to give herself time to think about how to even broach this topic. How much should she say? How could she explain knowing what she shouldn't know? She needed to keep the fact she already knew vampires existed to herself, and it would take so much work to edit that part out. "Charlie let me come over on a school night and I don't want to make him regret it." When in doubt, hide behind daddy, she thought with some disgust at herself.

"Bella, could you really focus if we went to school now?" Alice asked her flatly. "We need to talk, and nothing else is more important right now." Bella closed her eyes slowly and tried to calm her nerves. She wasn't getting out of this and she had no idea what to say. "We could have Esme call him. It wouldn't even be lying to say you needed to catch up on sleep, that you hadn't been well."

"You can trust us." Rosalie spoke softly, her hand moving to rest on Bella's shoulder.

Bella had to open her eyes and face the blonde vampire. "Okay." Bella nodded, but even she would love to know what she was going to say, it would make it easier to start. "If Charlie is okay with my skipping I guess we can do it today." She still held out hope he'd put his foot down, not a lot of hope, but some.

Alice slipped out of the room, as if she had to tell Esme to call. They wanted her secrets and they were still protecting their own. Bella would try and help them do that, or at least help them believe they were able to do that. At this point she preserved that 'ignorance' just for them, to make them feel safe, and in a way to keep them safe. Both would hopefully keep them around, Bella didn't want to lose them.

"Did you want the others to be here?" Rosalie asked while they waited for the phone call to be done.

"I don't mind what they know, but," Bella took a deep breath, trying to calm her nerves some. "I don't think I can do this with a million questions coming at me from everywhere." Her voice cracked and Rosalie gave her a concerned look, before pulling her into a hug. The scent of the vampire helped to calm her. Rosalie's body gave off no heat, something that Bella used to notice much more when she first started being near vampires, but now that coolness was comforting was comforting to her, not just odd.

"That's fine, if that's what you need." Rosalie told her gently. "It'll just be the three of us." And the vampires hiding in the shadows, Bella thought to herself, but if they were hiding they couldn't mess up her concentration with questions.

"All set." Alice said as she slipped back into the room. She smiled victoriously. "Esme told him you fell asleep early and slept all night, but that you'd been so run down she was worried about you. He says you can stay and finish sleeping." Bella almost asked if she could go back to bed then, but knew better. She wasn't the teenager she looked like and those stalling techniques wouldn't work anyhow.

She was out of time and they stood around the dining table for a tense moment before Bella just sagged, and then took a seat, not looking at either of her friends. They were going to think she was crazy if she didn't share enough, but if she shared too much they might leave. She wasn't stupid, she knew that they were going to leave her at some point, but she was in no rush to see that happen. If she told them she knew, they might leave, or maybe it would be all that was needed to make them stay. It was too high of stakes, and she didn't like gambling.

Alice moved to sit across from her and Rosalie at the head of the table. They were close, they looked like they were waiting and Alice looked determined. Bella raised her hands and ran them through her hair, tugging a little, causing some pain and trying to kick start her brain, because it just wasn't working fast enough.

Faced with the real possibility of losing them, the Bella in the New Moon book didn't seen quite as pathetic to her. Of course, that Bella wasn't as close to as many vampires as this Bella was. That Bella was all about Edward, with some pain left over for the others, but this Bella never loved easily and she hadn't even noticed herself becoming so invested in the Cullens. She hadn't planned that, but she hadn't fought it when she noticed it was happening. She was so relieved to be happy for a change, and now it felt like her life was about to fall completely apart, and somehow it was worse than her death.

"I wish we could give you the time you need." Alice spoke softly, gently and there was a hint of her regret. "You don't even know what you're going to do or say, I know you're scared." Alice gently turned Bella to stare into her eyes. "If there wasn't an urgent need I wouldn't push you, but Bella," Alice shook her head.

"Don't threaten her." Rosalie spoke up quickly.

"She needs to know why she needs to talk now." Alice spoke and Bella felt like her heart stuttered in her chest as she realized this was it, someone was pushing the family to leave and this was the one chance she had to try and keep them. It had come early, but she was given a chance to try and stop it.

"What do you want to know?" Bella whispered and she swallowed hard, because she was starting to feel a little sick. Her words stopped the vampire stare down happening at the table. Apparently she didn't look well, because Rosalie reached out to take one of Bella's hands.

"First, just explain your powers." Alice spoke softly. Bella had to force herself to ignore where the others might be. For all she knew they were packing, and that thought made her a little sick. How fast was this going to be if they left her? Would she ever see them again after today?

"Oh God." Explain her powers? Like that was easy? Alice thought she knew things, she had no idea what was really going on. Bella couldn't sit here and talk about a mental shield, it was her power but it had nothing to do with any of this. No, it all came back to one thing, it always came back to that. "It's so confusing, it makes no sense. I didn't even want to believe it."

"The doctors don't know what really happened to me last summer." Bella knew she had to start there, but she wasn't sure how to prove a single word she said. "Yes, there was an accident, and I woke up by the side of the pool confused. It isn't amnesia though, but I couldn't tell them the truth or I'd be locked up forever."

"I already promised you that I wouldn't let anyone lock you up." Alice told her gently, but Bella could see the confusion in her eyes. Apparently Bella wasn't making decisions, she had no idea what she was doing and so Alice was going to be really surprised.

Bella took a deep breath and stared into Alice's eyes. She was offering protection, which was sweet, but this was bigger than anything Bella ever considered sharing before. "This is going to get pretty far into the supernatural. Most people would say I was crazy." She warned them both, glancing at Rosalie as she finished saying it. Rosalie looked cautious now.

"This is not my body." Bella lowered a fist onto the table as she said that, her nails digging into her skin, and she stared at her own fist rather than see the looks she was sure she was getting. "I'm not Charlie's daughter." She took a shaky breath and ignored how the two vampires at the table were frozen like stone. "Reincarnation isn't just a fun thing to consider, something to debate. I died and they screwed up the paperwork in the afterlife, because they put me in here with all my memories still attached. They gave me the body of a fifteen year old girl."

Her words had been getting louder and Bella took a deep breath to try and calm down. "This is not my body. When I told the first doctor I could see that was a mistake, I learned to just shut up about it. Just hide it." Bella looked up and she could feel tears traveling down her face. Alice's eyes were wide and Rosalie had a hand over her mouth as she stared at her. "They lock people away who say they are someone else like this, but it's true. I couldn't even die right. Who fucks up on a reincarnation? How the hell?" Bella just shook her head, words she never risked saying out loud finally out there for her to hear it as well. She ran her right hand through her hair until it just sat on top of her head and she stared at the table, because the vampires were like statues. They all sat in silence for a while.

"I'm not claiming to be anyone famous, I'm not Napoleon." Bella continued more quietly. "I was just a regular person, nothing unusual, nothing extraordinary. I don't know why this happened to me. I was far from the only one that died in that accident, I watched them all fall before me. I don't know why I was given this chance. I don't even know what to do with it. I'm trying, though, I am trying." She could see some confusion in Rosalie and Alice's eyes and realized they didn't know how she died. Bella had left that out.

"My death was a surprise. I'd been having a great day up until that moment. My boss had hinted that there might be a promotion on the way, that I should prepare for it. I had been saving for years and I'd found the perfect house. I'd put in an offer that morning, and I was a little late to work because of it. I left work late, making up my hours, because I'd need every dime I could get to close on a house. I should have already been home, but I wasn't. The bridge collapsed, and so many cars fell into the water, so many. I tried to stop my car, I held the brakes as hard as I could, but mine went over the edge too. I don't remember actually dying, but that drop was very far and I'm sure I died on impact. I didn't get a chance to drown." Bella's words cracked and she shoved a fist hard into her mouth to try and muffle the whine of pain she could hear coming from her lips.

"aww, shhh," Rosalie whispered and pulled her into a hug. Bella hadn't even seen the vampire move, but now she was being pressed up against her stomach as Rosalie stood by her and hugged her while Bella was seated. Bella gripped hard at Rosalie, unconcerned with hurting her, she wouldn't be able to anyhow, and Bella buried her face into Rosalie's stomach as she tried to stop the sobs that just weren't ready to stop. Rosalie ran her hand over Bella's back soothingly.

"It's going to be okay Bella. Just breath, that's it, just breath." Rosalie whispered. When Bella was finally down to just sniffling, Rosalie's hand was moving in small circles on her back. Bella pulled away reluctantly and when she turned to see if Alice was still there, she saw the table had become occupied while she was crying. Esme looked like she could barely keep herself from pulling Bella into her own arms, and Emmett looked so helpless as he stared at her. Alice had her head buried in Jasper's shoulder and Bella felt unsure what she should do or say to the vampires waiting for something from her. Carlisle leaned forward just a little, but then clearly changed his mind, because he just shut his mouth.

"I see why you had those nightmares now." Emmett spoke up and a few vampires gave him a dark look, but Bella smiled just a little. It seemed like he believed her, she had wondered if they even would.

"If they were going to screw it up, they could have screwed it up even more. I got lucky, I know I did." Bella struggled with something to say that wouldn't make her cry. "But I could have done without having to repeat three years of high school."

Emmett chuckled politely at her attempt at humor, and Rosalie patted her hand on Bella's shoulder before moving to sit in the chair right beside her. Rose moved that chair closer, so Bella could feel her close by and it did kind of help with Bella's nerves.

"This is so big, how did I not know?" Alice whispered and Bella could see Alice was stunned. That vampire probably wasn't surprised often. "How did you keep this a secret?"

"I knew better than to ever say anything about it. I was never going to say anything, ever, about it. How could you know when I was so determined never to let anyone know? They called it amnesia, and it was the only way I was able to slip into this new life somewhat normally. No one expected me to know anything, it helped." Bella sighed and risked glancing around at everyone again, trying to gauge how her secret was being taken. It was a little hard to judge based on expressions that could be sympathy of what she went through or sympathy for her break with reality. "I'll admit that I made decisions to never, ever share my secrets so that you'd never see them Alice. I knew that was the only way to keep them secret." Alice looked like she thought she'd fail miserably at not knowing any of this had happened, and Bella had to step in and explain. She didn't like the defeated look in Alice's eyes.

"And this is why you never even considered talking about your problems to ease your nightmares." Esme spoke softly, slowly. Bella nodded, it was a huge part of that. "Oh Bella." It was a breathy sound of regret and Bella struggled to not tear up when she heard it.

"How do you know so much about Alice? Did you know her before?" Carlisle asked softly after the pause of silence. Bella felt her heart sink as she found she wasn't ready for these questions. How much truth was really necessary?


	33. Chapter 33

**Bella Pov**

The silence was tense and Bella found herself staring at the table, trying to figure out how not to hurt the vampires around her. The truth was strange and a bit hurtful. There was no reason to spell it all out.

"Bella?" Alice spoke softly and Bella looked up to see that everyone was watching her. "Did you know me?" She just repeated Carlisle's question, and Bella found it was even harder when Alice asked it.

"No," Bella shook her head and reached into her mind and grasped the first semi-true story she could come up with. "It was really strange, almost like a preview." Her words were choppy and stilted as she struggled to make up the rest of the story in her head. "It was like a movie, or a book." Exactly like it, she thought, but she was never going to say that. "This story was just given to me." How, her mind struggled with this one. It had to be good. "The girl," Bella put her hand over her chest for a moment, "Charlie's real daughter, god." Bella hissed and she turned to stare at Emmett helplessly.

Emmett gave her a soft, encouraging smile. Bella knew he didn't mean lie better, you can lie really well, go for it, but she steeled her courage and found a way to not belittle the Cullen's existence with some story of them being fictional characters. "I woke up with this story in my head." Her voice was calmer as she committed to something she thought could work. She would never want someone to tell her that her life was a book people read and talked about, so she just wasn't going to do it to her vampires. "It's morbid really, but it was about the girl who used to live in this body. It was maybe two years of a life she never got to live, because I'm here now. It hasn't even started yet really, I mean the story started in Junior year."

"What do you mean woke up with a story?" Carlisle asked and Bella sighed.

"It's kind of like I woke up remembering a book, or a movie. It was a story I heard, but wasn't really a part of. It wasn't like a memory." Bella explained and hoped that was enough, because she had no idea how to explain it. "I was given a piece of the life she would have lived to know about. She was going to move in with Charlie next January." Bella looked over at a puzzled Alice, and she did notice everyone looked confused. "That Bella was going to be Alice's friend too." Bella could actually see the apprehension around the table, almost felt it and she wondered if Jasper was leaking emotions. "So I have whatever came from that future that is never gonna happen in my head."

"What happened to that Bella?" Rosalie asked softly. "How did that story end?"

"She got married, and I was not impressed. She acted like the boy she married was perfect, but he was far from it. Controlling to a degree that any woman should have walked away, but the story was in her point of view and she was so thrilled to have him. He treated her like a stupid child, made decisions without caring how she felt. Bella, that Bella might have been young, but living with her mother there is no way she was a child." Bella spoke a little too passionately about it, but she was unusually invested in that 'story' now. Jasper sat up just a little straighter and Bella felt a defeated resignation as he opened his mouth, wondering what holes he wanted to put into her little plan to protect their feelings.

"Why would you be given a story?" He asked, and Bella had an epiphany when she tried to think of an answer.

Her voice was less shaky as she glanced around the table, her eyes finally able to look others in the face. They still looked confused and anxious. "I thought it was just a story at first, maybe something I didn't remember reading, but then I found out the woman the doctors were giving me to was actually in the story. The man she told me to call when I got out of the hospital, Charlie, was in the story. This town, you guys, the kids at school, Jacob, were all in the story. It was then I realized that even though the _powers that be_ screwed up, that story could help to give me a small advantage. Apparently there is an obstacle course of death coming my way and I know what's going to happen. Forewarned right?" Bella gave Alice a weak smile. "I need to use what I know to survive, but that information doesn't start until January, when I have to avoid being crushed by a van. Then I have to avoid being hunted by a serial killer, and then his serial killer friends. It goes on and on." Bella shook her head in disgust and hoped that not being with Edward was enough to avoid most of the shit in those books, that and her warning, but she hadn't even gotten to the Twilight timeline yet. "I'm hoping it was THAT Bella that was jinxed, and not the body, because she attracted danger like she'd been cursed." Bella sighed heavily and noticed Esme was looking pained. Bella gave her a weak smile, trying to reassure her. "It's going to be hard, a different kind of hard than I'm used to, if I've inherited her 'curse', but the first thing I need to do is avoid the school parking lot when it's icy. See, I know what I need and I just have to try and make it work."

"How did she survive the van?" Rosalie asked quietly.

"One of your family." Bella admitted, pained to have to say it.

"And the 'serial killer'?" Alice asked just as subdued as Bella had ever seen her.

"You found her. James was finally killed in a fire, so he was no longer a threat." Bella spoke just as softly.

"But he had friends?" Jasper spoke and Bella looked over to see him staring at her rather hard.

"Yes, they decided it was Bella's fault James was dead." Bella could anticipate the next question easily.

"How did she survive them?" Jasper asked and Bella's mind was quickly putting together something she hadn't really wanted to consider before.

"Look, that Bella spent her most of her 'story' being rescued by other people, but I know what's happening and I should be able to find a way around needing protection." Her heart was sinking and a few tears started to gather in her eyes as she started to doubt her own words. If the Cullens left, was Bella still going to draw James' attention? "I mean why would I be given a second chance only to get less than two years out of it? That seems more cruel really, just get to the point I have new dreams and then destroy them again? God can't hate me that much can he? He doesn't just wait for my life to get good to destroy me?"

Rosalie's scent became stronger and Bella found herself tugged gently into leaning against the blonde. "You'll get more than two years Bella, I promise you." Rosalie whispered into her hair. Bella took a few deep breaths to calm down and Rosalie's scent helped.

…..

** Jasper Pov**

Jasper could feel the emotions around the table easily and he knew they were not moving anytime soon. Even he changed his mind about the need, because if he was condemning her to facing a coven of vampires alone by leaving, he couldn't do that to her. Carlisle also gave off a feeling of determination alongside his fascination and sympathy.

"As impossible as it seems, I don't think she's lying." He spoke softly to the others while Bella sat cuddled up in Rosalie's arms. The girl, woman, Bella, was clearly deep in thought and wouldn't notice the super quiet conversation.

"If this family votes to leave, Emmett and I will be staying." Rosalie spoke just as quietly, but her voice was harsh and her eyes, over Bella's head, were challenging.

"I think that vote is well and truly dead." Carlisle spoke softly and Jasper noticed him eyeing Bella with curiosity.

Emmett spoke up a little louder, so Bella could hear. "So, what's your real name?" Jasper noticed a hint of concern in her.

"Renee named her daughter Isabella Marie Swan." Bella pulled out of the hug that Rosalie had been determined to give her and looked around the table. "I was named Bella Maria Swan"

Jasper felt amusement from Emmett, and some disbelief and amazement from the others. Emmett started to chuckle. "Oh my god, they misfiled you." That feeling of disbelief spread to Bella herself at his words. "Your names are almost identical, just a little different, and they misfiled your soul into her body."

"A clerical error, really Emmett?" Rosalie sounded a little tense. "You're going to tell her she's here because the file clerk in heaven misfiled her?" Her eyes bore into her husband's and Jasper watched Emmett's amusement evaporate. "That's insensitive."

"I'm sorry Bella." Emmett apologized softly.

"It's okay Emmett." Bella spoke softly, but Jasper felt some strange irritation in Bella about the name issue he couldn't even guess the reason to.

"It does make you wonder what happened to that other Bella though." Jasper spoke so everyone could hear him and he got a glare from Esme for his words, and a small spike of guilt from Bella.

"I try not to think about it." Bella spoke up, her words faster than normal. "When I thought it was a story, I wasn't really a fan of her, but I wouldn't have wished my death on her. I feel bad for her, and I feel bad for Charlie. God, Charlie is such a good father and I never want him to know I'm not his Bella. When I decided to move here I thought he'd be a better roommate, I never expected to actually," Her words trailed off.

"Love him." Esme spoke just as softly, filling in the word Jasper could feel was right based on the feelings Bella was giving off.

"It's so confusing being a teenager again." Bella whispered. "I mean I know I'm not a child, but I don't really know what I am anymore. I'm not used to being able to rely on anyone; I've been alone for so long, it feels strange. But I'm the only family he has. I guess I can understand him. He isn't so different than me." The mix of pain, regret, hope, loneliness and love gave Jasper a story he couldn't put into words for the others, but this Bella hadn't had a good life before she died. He could sense that.

When Bella cleared her throat and swallowed, Esme gave off a sense of concern. "Are you alright?"

"I'm just thirsty." Bella told her and Esme was up from her seat instantly. It was interesting really, to see Esme going off to get Bella a drink and sensing the way Esme enjoyed caring for her. They all played at being Esme's child, but Bella needing basic things made Esme happy.

"You didn't eat yet either?" Esme's voice called back and Jasper felt dismay and guilt, and some irritation coming from their mother figure. "It's all cold now." Esme's voice was quieter and her unhappiness at them forgetting to feed the human was clear.

"I don't know if I can eat yet." Bella answered her. He watched her, as did the others. "I'm a bit too tense, I might not keep it down."

"Oh," Alice's eyes widened in understanding.

Esme came back out with a glass of orange juice and put it in front of Bella. "Once you feel like eating dear, just tell me. I'll make you something."

"Thank you." Bella gave Esme a small smile and took a sip of her drink. Everyone waited, giving off waves of impatience, even though they didn't interrupt Bella drinking desperately, she was thirsty. Alice was more impatient than any of them and Jasper glanced down to his side to see her fidgeting. He got the sense that Alice had a question she wanted to ask.

….

** Bella Pov**

"I'd like to hear the story you were given." Carlisle spoke up and Bella couldn't stop herself from cringing at that idea. She glanced around the table and she could see he wasn't the only one.

"I don't want to do that." She stammered. "It isn't going to happen, so," Her words trailed off. She really didn't want to share that story. "I'm on a different path, it doesn't matter."

"You are using it to protect yourself, and you also said we were in it." Jasper spoke slowly, his eyes too piercing. "We'd like to know how? Apparently we were a big part of that Bella's life as well."

"I really don't want to do that." Bella stared him down and willed him to give up.

"If you aren't comfortable with it, it can wait." Esme spoke up and Bella was relieved for the backup. "It isn't that we want to know her, we just want to know what you know." Esme explained gently and Bella felt grateful for that, but she couldn't tell them what she knew.

Alice spoke up softly and Bella turned to look at her. "I don't think you won't understand this, but what you won't say is what some will use to try and take us away. You aren't protecting us Bella, you're tearing us apart."

"Alice!" Esme scolded her, but Alice just kept her eyes staring into Bella's and Bella felt herself going pale as she realized that no matter how careful she'd been, how many times she'd made sure not to see, Alice found out.

"How?" Bella whispered it out and Esme stopped scolding to turn and stare at her. Bella felt the eyes on her and it made her uncomfortable.

"You were too good, some things are impossible to ignore and you still did." Alice spoke firmly. "I had Emmett go through so many plans, and you were determined not to hear it. The future ratted you out my dear."

"I had to protect," Her words trailed off and she looked around the table. Emmett looked like he was slowly working out what they were talking about. Bella's heart started to beat a little faster as she noticed the searching looks on Rosalie and Esme's face, or the suspicious one on Jasper's. Carlisle was watching Alice instead, and he was frowning.

"Say it Bella." Alice spoke slowly, firmly, but her eyes held compassion. Her voice softened, "Just say it."

"I don't want you to leave me." Bella heard the whine in her voice and didn't care.

"Then say it." Alice repeated.

"I always knew, I knew before I visited Charlie the first time. It was in the story." Bella was grateful she hadn't had breakfast, she felt ill and she could feel herself starting to sweat.

"What did you know?" Rosalie spoke slowly, her eyes moving between Alice and Bella suspiciously.

Bella swallowed slowly and turned to look at Rosalie. She knew this wasn't going to go over well. "I knew, the risk though, I couldn't let you know I knew." Rosalie's expression slowly changed to shock. "I didn't want the Volturi to accuse you of anything. I can protect my mind, but I'm not strong enough to protect yours."

"Oh my god." Esme gasped and Bella risked a glance at her since Rosalie wasn't moving, to see Esme had a hand covering her mouth in shock.

"Are you saying that you know what we are?" Carlisle spoke sharper than she'd ever heard him speak and Bella felt surrounded, because there were so many vampires staring at her in shock.

"Vegetarians?" Bella gave a weak smile, but she still felt like her stomach was churning way too much.

"Holy shit Bella Bear." Emmett broke the tense silence. "You knew the whole time?" His eyes started to sparkle happily. "You have balls of steel, you didn't even flinch."

Esme was still unable to talk, or he would have been scolded for that. Bella gave Emmett a weak smile. "You never saw me flinch, different thing all together Emmett. I'm Edward's singer, I flinched, believe me I flinched." Rosalie gasped beside her and Bella looked over to see the blonde slowly starting to look angry. Bella continued, guessing as to why. "I tested the waters, I sent Carlisle home covered in my scent and then I wandered around in public all day after it, hoping it was going to be okay. I asked you Emmett, you said I could meet your family. I thought maybe it was okay, maybe my blood was different than hers, but after meeting him, well, clearly it isn't. He could barely talk. You guys have me in protective custody at school, I know, and I appreciate it, I really do."

"There was an entire coven of vampires here, and your only reservation was Edward?" Rosalie spoke, her voice sharp and Bella noticed she choked a bit on being the first to say the word.

"He's the only one I have to worry about." Bella stared at the blonde before her and could see the disbelief in her face. "Other than the ones that aren't here yet."

Bella stared helplessly as Rosalie left, and Rosalie didn't bother to hide her speed as she ran upstairs and everyone could hear the slamming of her bedroom door. "I don't want her to hate me." Bella felt her eyes prick with tears as she stared after the missing blonde. Her heart ached at the mere thought of it.

"She's just confused right now, it'll be okay." Alice told her, appearing in front of her instantly. Alice petted her hair gently. "You had to tell us." Alice kissed her teary cheek. "It'll be okay." Alice whispered into her hair.

"Yeah Bella Bear, Rosie just is shocked. She was so sure you'd be afraid and to find out you never had been. That all that time, you knew, well, she didn't expect that." Emmett gave her a small smile. "I'm gonna go, but we're not leaving Bella Bear, I just think she needs me now."

"Yeah, good." Bella felt awkward, when Emmett left, because she still had four vampires staring at her. Esme, Carlisle, Jasper and Alice were just staring, though Alice managed to also pet her arm as she did it.


	34. Chapter 34

**Esme Pov**

Esme watched Bella, and took in the light flush of her cheeks and the shine in her eyes with some concern. Bella's fingers were clenching just a little and it was obvious, even without Jasper's gift that she was nervous now that her secrets were out. Still, it was hard to think of something to say, because the shock of realizing Bella always knew. "In the supermarket?" She found herself asking as she considered that first time she saw Bella.

"I knew who you were." Bella admitted quietly. "Part of me didn't really believe until that moment."

"But just seeing me made you believe?" Esme asked, as she tried to think of anything she'd done wrong in that store, anything that would have made her not seem human. It wasn't a good feeling to think she'd messed up there, when she only went there to keep up the charade.

"The eyes." Bella started to blush, "And you all look, well," Esme could hear Alice giggle just quiet enough that Bella wouldn't hear.

"That was enough?" Esme spoke up rather than force Bella to say something that would embarrass her.

"The story wasn't too descriptive of you, but it was enough for me to figure it out easily." Bella's fingers moved around her empty glass, but Esme got the sense she just needed to grab at something. "I didn't set out to be here, at first I just wanted to live in Forks. I was prepared to avoid all of you, to try and seem uninteresting and just blend in."

Bella's eyes were so expressive and Esme found her heart aching a little as Bella stared into her own eyes. "You all are so easy to care about though, and before I knew it I was here, pretending I didn't know so you wouldn't get in trouble and trying to help you hide your secrets from me. Taking cold showers after gym to try and keep my scent down, learning to look away when you pretend to eat, ignoring any awkwardness, pretending I don't know when you are talking too quiet for me to hear."

It was startling to hear what Bella was doing for them and they'd never noticed. Esme had always assumed that Bella was so focused, that she stared at things so long because she wanted to, but she was giving them time. When Bella stayed and had dinner with just Esme, it was Bella that found a way for Esme to still be able to hide her food. Bella did that to spare Esme having to actually eat it.

"How much do you know about us? You knew a good deal about Alice that we didn't even know." Jasper spoke up and Bella's heart started to beat just a little faster.

"You're the second oldest one here Jasper." Bella spoke quietly, her voice a little shaky. "Major Jasper Whitlock of the Civil war. You have an empathy power that somehow can get around my shield." Esme looked up at Carlisle when she said that, stunned at how much Bella knew about them, and apparently about her own immunity with Edward's power. She could see Carlisle was building up a long list of questions in his mind, she could see it in his eyes.

"What can you tell us about this shield?" Carlisle asked and Esme noticed that Bella didn't like the question. "How much do you know about it?"

"Aside from keeping Edward out of my head, it should work on anyone using mental powers on me, but Jasper being able to read me is something I don't really understand." Bella admitted and Esme felt her hesitation. It made her curious as to what and how she knew what she did about it.

"Any mental powers? How do you know it isn't just Edward?" Carlisle spoke more gently, and Esme didn't like the fact that for Bella to know she'd need to meet more vampires.

"The story." Bella grimaced. "That Bella met a good number of gifted vampires."

"Who?" Rosalie's voice carried down to them, it was stony and flat. Bella couldn't hear that though, so Esme spoke up and repeated the question.

The way Bella turned to stare at Alice, and the way Alice froze in a vision for a moment wasn't comforting, especially when Alice's eyes widened. Esme was a little irritated that Bella so quickly caught on to the way to talk with Alice without anyone hearing.

Alice opened her mouth hesitantly. "That other Bella met the Volturi. Aro and Jane's powers didn't work on her."

"That is not happening, that is never happening." Esme growled, the mere thought of Bella being exposed to the Volturi was horrifying.

"How did she end up meeting them?" Carlisle pushed and Bella's jaw clenched and her eyes hardened. Esme was surprised to see that expression on her face as Bella stared at Carlisle.

"I am not that Bella, and that little mishap she went through isn't going to happen to me. I'm not so stupid as to get on a plane to Italy and the whole mess that started it isn't going to happen, so let's not scare everyone with a ghost story that will remain just a story." It wasn't a request and Esme had never seen Bella so firm about anything. Even Carlisle looked taken aback and he didn't know her very well.

…..

** Emmett Pov**

"Bella Bear, laying down the law." Emmett muttered as he overheard her refuse to answer a question. He sat on the bed, nearby, while Rosalie sat in the chair and stared out the window. Both of them were listening to the conversation that had been going on downstairs. The only time Rosalie had spoken was to ask a question and the only time she moved was when she got the answer. "She'll be okay." Emmett spoke softly, seeing the pain in Rosalie's eyes at the thought of Bella in Italy. "That other Bella had to go to Voltura for them to find her, our Bella's way smarter than that."

"She knew Emmett." Rosalie finally spoke to him. Emmett leaned forward, toward her from his seat on the bed.

"She did and she still let you hang all over her for those pictures." He gave Rosalie a little smile as he teased her again. It did make a lot of those poses a bit more meaningful now, knowing that Bella knew at the time that she was letting a vampire get that very close to her, in one it almost looked like Rose only needed to open her mouth to bite Bella. Jasper had been kind enough to give Emmett the full set of pictures and he'd seen them all.

"And she let you carry her." Rose spoke quietly, not responding to his teasing about the pictures at all. "And how many times has she been alone with one of us?" Rose glanced at the bed behind him. "She slept in our bed Emmett, she slept there. She slept in the car to Portland, Alice told me." Sleeping wasn't something that they did anymore, but Emmett was pretty sure you'd need to feel somewhat safe to do it. That was what Rosalie was stumped by, and Emmett didn't know how to explain it. Rose whispered so quietly it was hard to hear. "She knew I was there and she held onto me last night."

Emmett's eyebrows moved up as he stared at his wife. That hinted to a story, but he was pretty sure Rosie didn't do anything inappropriate to the sleeping human. Still, that sounded far too interesting and it was hard not to tease just a little. "Did Bella Bear hold anything interesting?"

He got a brief disgusted look at his teasing, but he could see last night was something to talk about. Rose stared at the bed again. "When I sat down on the bed to check on her, she grabbed my sleeve, and wouldn't let me go. I sat with her for a while." Rose sighed heavily. "She knew what I was when she did that Emmett, and she wouldn't let me go."

"Bella bear has really good tastes." He gave Rose a smile and barely got one in return. "When you walked away from her down there, I thought she was going to cry. She just stared after you, looking so sad and helpless." He admitted and watched a pained expression cross Rose's face, but she needed to hear this. "She's afraid you won't forgive her for not telling, but it was our secret and it wasn't like we were telling her either."

"She chose to be surrounded by vampires, how is that keeping her safe?" Rosalie's voice cracked. "She didn't even consider how she makes our throats burn, she was only concerned about Edward."

"Rose," Emmett sighed and looked at his wife with his eyes full of his love. "You carried me, bleeding, for miles so I could be turned before I died. I bled all over you, and you didn't bite. I think you can trust yourself with Bella, more than any of us." He shook his head. "You aren't afraid about biting her, you're upset because she accepts you just how you are, and you expected at least some trouble. She loves you Rose, you as a vampire, and she trusts you."

He'd expected it, but still he barely managed to brace himself in time as Rosalie launched herself at him, her tears would never come, but she sobbed into his shoulder and he held her. Maybe this was a good thing. Rose was so insecure about being a vampire; she didn't embrace it like Emmett did. The fact that Bella knew and didn't care might be a good thing for Rose.

"Maybe now that the secrets are all out we can find out more about her. She has a past now." Emmett muttered into Rosalie's hair. "We don't even know how old she is." He thought out loud, realizing that never came up. He looked out the window and asked hesitantly. "She died in a car, and she knows a bit about computers so it can't have really been that long ago."

Alice's voice came to them from downstairs. "Bella, what year was it when you died?" Emmett sighed as his question got asked.

"Time doesn't mean much in reincarnation." Bella spoke softly and Emmett felt Rosalie tense as she started to listen as well. "I died in 2012."

"Oh my god." Emmett felt Rosalie pull away from him and they stared at each other during the tense pause in conversation. They had almost eight years before 2012 hit.

"So you're alive somewhere else right now too?" Carlisle asked.

"Not around here. This isn't the world I came from." Bella sounded really reluctant to say it and Emmett just froze as he considered that there were other worlds. He thought he'd been shocked to learn vampires existed, but apparently they hadn't even scratched the surface of the universe.

"Does she mean she's from Mars?" Emmett whispered to Rose. She just focused harder on listening in and ignored his question because Bella was still talking.

"If this were my world, I'd be twenty seven now and I checked where I was working at twenty seven. I'm not there." Bella told Alice and Emmett started doing the math.

"So she was thirty five when she died." Emmett calculated out loud. He noticed Rosalie start to frown. "That doesn't matter does it? She's still the youngest of us." He grimaced as he considered that Rosalie might have only started to talk to Bella because she thought of her as 'young'.

"It doesn't matter." Rosalie said distractedly. He almost wished Edward was there to tell him what Rose was thinking about though, because she sure seemed distracted by Bella's age.

….

** Bella Pov**

Bella noticed that when there was an age to put to her that Esme gave her an odd look. The brunette vampire covered it up and smiled when she stood up to take Bella's plate back to the kitchen, but it unsettled Bella.

"Did you leave anyone behind?" Alice spoke softly and still the words stung hard.

"Dying young runs in my family." Bella admitted quietly. Esme was back at the table quickly after that. "I was the last one left, so they didn't have to go through the funerals like I did." Esme moved to sit beside her in that moment. Bella focused on her glass as she considered the question. "I was so sick of funerals. 'taken before their time' they always said that. It was always before their time. Dad had cancer, mom was attacked, and Danny OD'd, and I didn't even know he started doing drugs. It was four years from start to end and by the time I was twenty five I was alone in the world."

When Esme took her hand, Bella found herself gripping it tightly. Carlisle was probably listening, but he'd wandered off to the library when Esme told him not to ask questions when Bella was eating. Jasper was clearly paying attention, because there was a calm in her that never was there when she talked about this. It didn't mean it didn't hurt, but she was never able to finish saying any of it before.

"I dated for a while in college, but my life started falling apart when I was twenty one and I never really recovered it." She shook her head and sighed heavily. "I'm not good at dating." She just admitted it flatly. "My boss might miss me, but no one is torn up about it." Her throat ached, and she was tired of tears, but Esme pulled her into a hug anyhow and Bella did her best to not cry. She pulled away before Esme was willing to let her go, but she needed to. Esme would just make her cry. The brunette vampire continued to hold her hand and Bella squeezed it a few times, grateful it was there. She used her other hand to try and clear up the tears on her cheeks.

"With my death I think my family managed to cover every major death category, medical, homicide, suicide and freak accident." She gave a grim smile. "We're well balanced like that." She looked around the room and her eye caught the tv. "I'm sick of talking about death, do you think the TV will at least show a dvd or something?"

"Oh, um, yes." Alice looked a little uncertain about it. "I'm sure it's fixed." The little vampire nodded but she looked a little guilty and Bella chose to ignore it. The tv was clearly never really broken.

There was a blur and Emmett stood in front of the dvd cabinet with a few movies in his hand. "We have 'Back to the Future', 'Freaky Friday' and 'The Time Machine'." He smirked at her and Bella couldn't help but give him a grateful smile at his attempt at comedy. She walked up to him and gave him a hug.

"I was thinking we might watch some classic Batman." Another voice spoke up and Bella looked up to see Rosalie standing on the stairs, watching her. The blonde gave her a weak smile. "You need to learn to appreciate Julie Newmar."

It was like a stone had been pulled off of her chest and she could breathe again. Rosalie took the stairs so gracefully and she gently moved Emmett to the side to pull out VHS tape. "I recorded this off the tv ten years ago, but hopefully it still works. They really need to release this on DVD." The side of the tape just read Catwoman.

"Let's try it." Bella spoke softly and her heart stuttered at the apologetic smile and soft caress of her arm as Rosalie moved around her to start the show.

In five minutes even the floor had become a seat as everyone joined them for old show, and when Bella glanced over at Emmett he gave her a smile and wiggled his eyebrows before giving a meaningful glance toward Rose, who was watching the show, but had taken Bella's hand. Emmett was right, it was going to be okay.


	35. Chapter 35

**Bella Pov**

"I'll take you home." Esme spoke up as they sat through the end of another episode.

"Bella, if you use the pills tonight, just use half." Carlisle spoke up. "And I want you to try and not use them over the weekend. You have people you can talk to now, try that. Pills aren't a long term solution."

"Thanks." She told him, but she wasn't sure how she felt about a prescription to talk. At least the big secrets were out, she didn't have to be so careful anymore. She still felt odd about the entire day, and the fact that she'd shared more than she ever planned.

Alice raced up the stairs at full speed, but then stopped at the top and smirked at her before racing out of sight to get Bella's things. "I'm sure the speed is impressive, but wait until I show you how strong I am." Emmett muttered and Bella couldn't help but smile at his little pout.

"What I want to see is you sparkle in the sunlight like a little fairy." She teased him. "Don't act like it's all cool and manly Peter Pan, I know it isn't."

She saw a few other small smiles, and Carlisle chuckled, while Emmett just stared at her, surprised. "Your story mentioned that?" He didn't sound pleased.

"Oh, repeatedly." Bella chuckled and took the bag that suddenly Alice was in front of her holding out to her. "Thank you." Bella told Alice. She then just waved to the others, but muttered a soundless bye to Rosalie. The blonde vampire gave her a soft smile in return.

"Have a nice night Friday." Emmett called out while Esme held the front door open for Bella and Bella glanced back, confused for a moment, because the word Friday made no sense and sounded kind of like a name the way he said it, before she got it. Body Switching, and that movie.

"Everyone loves Friday." Alice teased as well and Bella blushed as she ducked out of the front door, with a smiling Esme behind her.

"We do love you." Esme spoke softly as they made their way across the yard toward the garage. Bella felt awkward and had no idea what to say to that.

"I love you guys too." She admitted quietly and then focused her eyes on the ground she was walking on. "I don't want to seem ungrateful, I mean I did get a second chance, but I wasn't happy until I got here and that has a lot to do with you and your family. I don't think I've been happy in a very long time."

…

**Esme Pov**

Esme thought it was heart breaking to hear Bella admit she'd been so unhappy with life, this one or the one before. She just gave Bella a small smile, and opened the garage door. She'd gotten the hint that Bella wasn't comfortable with hugs and sympathy anymore, that it had been too emotional of a day and she restrained herself, but it was hard.

They talked about the Home Show they'd see that weekend, and Esme bit back so many questions she had as they did that. She wanted to know about Bella's real life, her real family. Her dreams, her job, there was so much they hadn't covered. But to ask those things would be a bit much, when she'd also kept her past a secret. "I was changed when I was twenty six." Esme started to share as they got closer to town. "We push the limits on the age Carlisle and I pretend to be, so we can at least claim to have adopted the others, because it's the only cover that works with so many of us looking so young." She glanced at Bella to see the girl was paying a lot of attention to her, but Esme had no idea if she was telling her things she already knew. That was still strange to her, even after living years with Alice. "I've been playing at being in my early thirties for many years, but I never reached it myself. I don't know what a woman's thirties are really like. Is it different?"

Bella smiled just a little. "Mid thirties had some things going for it, but sadly I wasn't in a relationship to share it with someone." Esme pulled the car up to the front of Bella's house as she watched the girl blush a little. It was a puzzle, what Bella was thinking. "Did you want to see my room? It's far from done, but it does look better."

Esme got out of the car to follow Bella in. Charlie wasn't here yet and Esme had questions, but first, "What did you mean about your mid thirties?"

Bella stammered. "Nevermind, I shouldn't have said anything." The girl pulled the key to the house out of her bag and started to unlock it.

"No, I really want to know." Esme watched Bella blush and was completely puzzled as to why, but she did want Bella to get used to really talking with her, Bella's health even seemed to depend on her ability to finally open up.

Bella stood in the doorway for a moment, taking a deep breath. "Women reach their sexual peak in their thirties. It isn't just a myth, I'm dealing with teenage hormones now and it's still a little easier than the thirties hornies."

"Oh," Esme's eyes widened as she realized what they were suddenly talking about. "Really?"

Bella turned to close the door behind them and looked into Esme's face with a sheepish smile. "I had to switch from battery to plug in, it was too expensive to keep the batteries stocked up." Esme's eyebrows rose up in surprise. "I'm sorry, it's not really appropriate is it?"

"The thirties hornies?" Esme asked, somewhat intrigued by the idea. "I never heard that before." Esme followed Bella toward the stairs. "How bad could it be? And should I know about this?"

"It could get pretty bad. It felt like I was in heat at times." Bella admitted as she turned back to look at her. They ended up stopping midway up the stairs. She was blushing pretty hard and the scent was strong, but Esme just swallowed the venom in her mouth and waited for whatever was about to be admitted. "Not every woman gets this, at least I don't think so. You could not know and be fine." Bella continued upstairs and Esme followed her, lost in thought for a moment.

"But what was it like?" Esme asked, it was an awkward conversation, but as she thought about it she remembered women mentioning the sexual peak before, but never really knew what they were talking about. She normally assumed it just meant the climax. It was always something she overheard other groups of women talking about, so she couldn't really ask.

"It would come on like a wave, it didn't always make sense why." Bella spoke quietly. "I think it was related to my period, because it was always at its worst right before I had it." Esme frowned a little at that, because she had forgotten what it was like to even have that anymore. "It was a pretty desperate need. It wasn't possible to just ignore it. At times it seemed impossible to even wait until I got home, but I always managed somehow."

Esme's eyes were wide and she just stared at Bella in shock. It made little sense to her for a human woman to deal with that, and it sounded just a little like bloodlust actually. Bella went a little redder and gave a chuckle. "Other than that, the thirties aren't any different for a woman."

"That seems like more than enough change." Esme spoke quietly, still a little stunned.

"Is this weird for you, my looking so young and talking about this?" Bella asked softly.

"A little" Esme smiled. "But I do have some experience talking with people who don't look their age. It's the heartbeat that makes it strange." Bella's words really showed she wasn't the child Esme was seeing in front of her and it was jarring, but Esme wasn't going to let that show. Bella was sharing, sure it wasn't what Esme expected, but she was sharing. Esme might need to research the sexual peak a bit more, in case she needed to be aware of it for her human cover. It wouldn't do for her to be completely unaware of this odd biological phenomenon.

Bella lead her into Bella's room and Esme looked around at the small changes, grateful for the chance to change the subject. The color of the walls was nice, and went well with the floor. The shelves nearly matched the dresser, to a human eye it probably looked perfect. Esme also noticed one new piece of art on the wall and she shook her head. "Emmett's contribution?" She'd heard Bella was given a lot of art for her walls, but apparently one didn't come down.

"Oh, I'm sure Jacob will be back at some point. I couldn't take it all down." Bella blushed a little, and Esme smiled, because she suspected Bella just liked that piece. It was bordering on artistic.

Esme noticed something else new and she moved toward the window to look at it. The lock was a bit more than the typical. She glanced up at Bella with a question on her face and noticed the human was a little apprehensive looking.

"I didn't want anyone sneaking into my room; I know it's probably possible to get around that lock, but not without waking me up." Bella told her and Esme frowned, before looking back down at it. She had a suspicion that this lock wasn't meant for humans, they were on the second floor after all.

"What made you think you need this?" Esme asked flatly, not liking the implications.

"In the story, well, that Bella had way too many vampires sneaking into her room. I have enough trouble sleeping, I need to know if I go to bed alone, I'll wake up alone." Bella admitted and Esme hissed quietly.

"Just this one window isn't enough for that. It wouldn't be hard to use a different window and come in your bedroom door, even with Charlie there." Esme looked closer at the window and thought it wasn't going to keep anyone out, but if all Bella needed was a sound to warn her it would do that. Seeing Bella sleep the other night though, and how even Alice couldn't wake her on purpose, this seemed like a doomed plan. "There really isn't a way to keep you safe with locks Bella. If this is about James, this will not help."

"No, he's not coming until next spring." Bella admitted and Esme didn't like hearing that the human knew a threat was coming. One thing was sure, Esme and the others would be patrolling this town carefully next spring.

"Who is this keeping out Bella?" Esme watched Bella flinch, but Esme had to know who Bella didn't trust. It had to be a member of her family. Something made her think it wasn't Emmett and his jokes Bella was concerned about.

"Edward doesn't always respect boundaries in the story, and I'm not comfortable with him sneaking in here to test his ability not to kill me. It doesn't seem safe and it's kind of creepy." Bella told her and Esme's eyes widened in anger.

"Did you wake up to see him?" Esme asked, a hint of a growl in her voice. "We're watching him, he shouldn't be able to get that close."

"No, but I had trouble sleeping thinking I might." Bella admitted and Esme didn't resist the urge to hug her.

"Oh, you lose far too much sleep, don't you?" Esme muttered into Bella's neck. "He normally has very good control, and he's working to be able to deal with your scent." She pulled back and looked into Bella's eyes. They did look better than the day before, so sleep helped. "But we are keeping an eye on both of you. Alice watches over you carefully. I don't believe a vampire could get into your bedroom without her knowing, and if any of my children start stalking you I will deal with it."

"Oh, well, thanks." Bella seemed unsure what to say and so Esme just smiled at her and looked around the room again, to comment on the progress. It was slow going, and she would have liked to have seen it done, but Esme was just going to have to learn some patience.

Esme lost track of how long they were talking and was surprised to hear the car pull up outside. She glanced out the window to see Chief Swan was back and a truck pulled up behind him. She couldn't prevent the small frown that came to her when she recognized Billy Black in the passenger side of that truck. When her family came back they went through the effort to contact the elders of that tribe and let them know. It was the proper thing to do with that treaty, but the Quileute's had not be polite at all, not even distantly polite. They had glared and threatened as if her family were just moments from slaughtering the entire town. They were definitely not like their ancestors, who had followed the spirit and the word of that treaty.

"It is getting late. I should probably head back." Esme spoke up as she faced Bella. She noticed Bella glance out the window and grimace.

"No warning at all, lovely Charlie." Bella's voice was flat and clearly unhappy. Esme found herself being studied. "This is your land, why is he even able to wander over here?"

"The treaty?" Esme asked, once again surprised by what Bella knew. "It's selective on who is restricted to these lands."

"Next time, renegotiate, that doesn't sound fair at all." Bella told her and then sighed heavily. "Want to help me put up pin up girl posters before you leave?"

"Can't say I've done that in my career." Esme smirked and watched Bella pull out the things Emmett got her. Once Esme saw them she decided to have a little talk with Emmett about his poor tastes. If Bella felt she had to do this, he should have tried for artistic. The only good piece was the one that had stayed on the wall. Maybe she'd ask him where he got that and see if there were more.

…..

** Bella Pov**

"Hey Bells!" Charlie yelled out when he finally got to the door. Bella glanced around the room and decided it was ready and gave Esme a tense smile of thanks.

"We're upstairs." She called back. Her voice was much quieter when she spoke to Esme. "If Billy is rude to you, let me know. I've already warned him I don't want to hear it, so if he breaches my little 'treaty' I'll have to call him on it."

"You don't really need to get involved Bella." Esme told her even as they could hear Billy's voice downstairs. That man clearly didn't know Bella had company.

Bella stared into Esme's eyes. This vampire, more than any of them, was not going to be insulted in Bella's home. It just wasn't going to happen, and if it did, she wasn't going to let anyone get away with being rude to Esme. It seemed sacrilegious to be rude to Esme. "I will not let Charlie's friends make mine feel unwelcome Esme, aside from how rude that is, I don't want the Elders thinking they have any say in my life."

Esme didn't look pleased, but they made their way out of Bella's room. Charlie looked a little surprised when Bella and Esme started down the stairs. "Oh, Hi," He stammered a little and Bella smiled at his surprise. "I thought Emmett was up there with Bells."

"No, I thought it would be best to make sure she got home myself." Esme told him with a smile and Bella focused her eyes on the man in the wheelchair watching this with narrowing eyes. "Bella was showing me her new shelves."

"Oh yeah, we went shopping." Charlie scratched the back of his neck, clearly a little embarrassed and Bella wondered once again what Esme told Charlie that day.

"Mr. Black," Esme greeted him and Bella glared at the man, because he was too hostile looking, and she continued until he noticed her and looked at her strangely.

"Mrs. Cullen." His voice was cold, but he nodded and then studied Bella's face again. She knew he probably never saw a teenager glare at him like this, but she was just waiting for him to be overtly rude, and if he was she was going to rake him through the coals so badly he'd never do it again.

"Well, I best be going." Esme told them, but when she moved toward the door it opened and Jacob stood there, looking a little confused.

"I found it." He turned to his dad, but his eyes were curious and wide as they took in Esme.

"Jacob, this is Esme Cullen, Dr. Cullen's wife." Bella introduced her and watched how the young teenager's eyes were still wide. Billy actually growled, and he wasn't even a wolf.

"Nice to meet you Jacob, but as I was saying I do need to get going." Esme smiled at him and slipped out of the house. Bella wasn't sure if she should follow Esme or stay behind.

"I'll get us a beer." Charlie said to Billy and Billy just nodded, but his eyes were burning holes in the door. Bella ignored him completely for now, other than the challenging look she gave him when his eyes moved to her.

"Wow." Jacob muttered as closed the door. His eyes widened to emphasis his point and Bella was positive he'd never seen such a beautiful woman before.

"I know." She smiled just a little and moved out of the entryway, ignoring Billy's stare. "And she's really nice too. She's teaching me about interior design." Bella ignored how unhappy Billy looked as she focused on Jacob.

After they managed to go upstairs and leave the men to order dinner and talk, Bella found herself blushing hard as Jacob started to sing "Mrs. Robinson" to her and ask why she had a married woman in her bedroom. He was having a great time with her embarrassment and she wasn't sure it was better than when he used to follow her around like a puppy, drooling.


	36. Chapter 36

** Esme Pov**

It was a few hours after Esme got back from Bella's when Edward had come home. They now sat around the dining table again, and Edward sat, without blinking, as they filled him in on what had happened since he left. Few words were spoken after they'd stopped talking and Edward had gleaned the story from their minds as well. Esme felt apprehensive, because his jaw was clenched and his fists sat on the table.

"So we have a human that knows what we are, knows personal things about us, and somehow you all voted when I wasn't here, to stay, in spite of all of that." He hissed out his words, so even though he wasn't yelling it was clear how angry he was.

"We knew your vote, it was counted. You wouldn't have listened to reason, or paid any attention to our opinions so it was easy to know how you'd vote, you've been going on and on about leaving for months." Rosalie spoke in a flat voice, clearly unhappy and somewhat angry herself. "It just didn't make a difference."

"Does Bella Bear really count as human?" Emmett asked. "I mean isn't she kinda more of a body snatcher?" Esme watched him start to grin, and she could tell his mind had gone on to think of ways to tease Bella.

"She is more dangerous to this family than we could have ever anticipated. She admitted she brought the Volturi down on us in that 'story'." Edward spoke and Esme frowned.

"She said no such thing. That Bella went to the Volturi, she never said if we were involved at all." Alice spoke up just before Esme could. "And it wasn't her in that 'story', it was the original Bella."

"You can't believe she just took over someone's body? She pushed the original Bella's soul out of her own body? That's insanity. She's had some sort of break with reality, maybe her powers caused it, but regardless, she is delusional if she thinks she took over a new body. Reincarnation doesn't exist, and even if it did it wouldn't work that way." Edward spoke and Alice growled and hissed at him.

"She is not insane and neither am I!" Alice's eyes were black as night and it happened suddenly. Esme sat up straighter and watched carefully to make sure things didn't escalate.

"Why won't she tell the story then? Is it because it is so obviously made up we'd never fall for it, or is it because she causes our deaths? She's keeping secrets and she's already proved to be dangerous. I say before you all decide to stay, you force her to talk." Edward spoke far too passionately, but then he sighed heavily. "This is a disaster in the making and I'm trying to warn you. You won't listen because you all are so enamored of the human, and it isn't natural." Edward glared at Rosalie and turned that glare to Alice. Esme noticed that even though she fully supported staying she hadn't gotten glared at as well, Edward rarely glared at her.

"What isn't natural is that you can see with your head so far up your ass." Rosalie hissed at him. "That's what isn't natural. You are such a controlling piece of shit,"

"This is supposed to be a discussion, not an attack." Carlisle spoke up, interrupting Rosalie and Esme was grateful, because this discussion was going downhill fast. Edward and Rosalie continued to glare at each other, and Esme could tell that the insults had just gone quiet, but they were still being yelled at Edward in Rosalie's mind.

"I don't understand what there is to discuss." Edward glared around the room. "We should be leaving, leave her to her human life and she'll adapt eventually, but none of you have any sense left."

"I'm not leaving, and I don't think I'm alone in that. She is in danger, and we may not have the entire story, but we know that much. Even if she weren't in danger, I wouldn't leave her. She already knows, so leaving would serve no purpose." Esme spoke slowly, staring at Edward. "Many humans think they know what a vampire would be Edward, we've all heard the stories. Don't make assumptions about other supernaturals and think you are right. I believe Bella, I believe she woke up in that body, and perhaps that isn't how it normally is supposed to happen, but for her it did. I don't want to hear you telling her she isn't reincarnated. You are not the expert on that." It was disrespectful and arrogant of him to think he could disregard Bella's experiences because they didn't fit his world view and Esme didn't like seeing that in Edward.

"You can't believe reincarnation exists. Heaven and Hell, but not that." Edward insisted and Esme sighed at his blindness. Proof was available for only one of those and Bella herself, the one who died and was reborn, didn't believe in Heaven. Edward managed to glare at Esme when she thought that, but she wasn't apologizing.

"Man, I have no fangs, I have no coffins, I can't fly, and I sparkle in the sun. If other people stuck to what they read in books I wouldn't be a vampire." Emmett spoke with a bit of bored irritation. "Give it up, my Bella Bear's back from the dead."

"That book is the Bible, it's a bit more reliable than Bram Stoker's Dracula." Edward hissed.

Emmett gave a grin that Esme knew spelled trouble and she didn't manage to stop him in time. "I dunno, Jesus dead for three days, sounds to me like he was the first recorded vampire." Edward's eyes narrowed and he hissed at his brother.

"Don't taunt him." Esme muttered, but she wondered as well, if the Bible had any truth in it, it couldn't all be true. Esme knew for sure that Edward's version of religion wasn't healthy at all. It wasn't right to assume you were damned regardless of how you lived. It was an argument she'd had to give up decades ago though, because Edward was stubborn and unable to listen to other opinions on those topics.

"I don't want to stay here. She's a demon sent to tempt me if she's anything supernatural and I want to leave." Edward sat stiffly.

It was hard, it was painful, but if he wanted to make her chose, he wasn't going to win. "If you can't stay with us here, I'll understand. I'm sure Tanya would take you in."

Edward's eyes widened in shock and Esme didn't let herself look down as his stare continued. "Really, if it came down to me or her, it would be her?"

"You have a family, you have the power to protect yourself, and she's alone and fragile. You more than anyone should know she is in danger if a human drinker gets within a mile of her, and there are three coming next spring. One of them is the vampire that hunted me." Alice spoke firmly. "You can hear our thoughts and you know what leaving Bella behind would do to us, and yet you argue that we should." Alice turned to Jasper. "Show him how Esme feels about Bella now."

Esme watched Edward's eyes widen.

"And this is Alice." Jasper said just that and Esme knew it was over before it even hit Edward. Edward would have to stop arguing now.

"I'm not leaving her, I'm never leaving her. I can't keep my promise to make sure she's never locked up if I'm not here and I will never let her be locked up for any reason. She risked so much to give me my past and I can't betray that by not keeping my promises." Alice spoke firmly as Edward got a dose of her love and commitment to Bella. Esme watched Edward's expression become defeated and helpless after the smile Jasper put on his face with Alice's emotions disappeared.

"This is a disaster and it won't end well. You all aren't thinking rationally, and this is wrong. We are vampires and somehow you managed to forget that. That poor human will pay the price, when someone loses control of their beast, and then you'll see I was right. We can't live with humans, we have to be separate for our sake and theirs. I lost the vote, I'll accept that, but you will all see what a mistake this is." Edward mumbled as he left, but Esme wasn't going to ever agree with that statement.

"I think Edward should be forced to keep that opinion to himself. It is so irritating having to listen to him repeatedly put us down for wanting Bella in our lives." Rosalie spoke harshly, her eyes on Carlisle. "Or are you unwilling to say anything to your favorite?" Esme grimaced. It was an unfair comment, but Esme had wondered at times if it was accurate. Edward was the first, and too often his opinion was heard first and the others were in the position of having to defend their own.

"I'll deal with it." Esme offered up, helping Carlisle save some face in this conflict, but they would have to talk about how they treated the others. This was the first time it was so very obvious how much influence Edward normally had in the family and something had to be done about that. It was hardly fair.

"As for his claim there will be accidents, we'll make sure everyone hunts when they should, no pushing it." Rosalie spoke firmly to the rest of them after Edward left. "Especially him, he's the most likely one." Esme considered what Bella had told her about the 'story' Edward testing himself with the other Bella's scent, tormenting himself most likely and putting that Bella at risk. No, Edward was not going to miss a single hunting trip, and now that it was in the open that Bella knew, they could ask for her bedsheets, or pillow case, to work on Edward's control with her scent, but he was never setting foot in Bella's bedroom himself.

Jasper spoke up after a moment. "We do need that story of hers though. It may not be completely accurate anymore, but if there is as much threat as she hinted to we should start planning soon."

"We should give her some time to recover before we go asking for it. Today was very hard on her." Rosalie spoke softly, now that the tension was gone, but Esme wasn't happy that the tension had a name and she was going to have to find a way to not make Edward feel unwelcome and yet still make sure he knew that leaving was not an option for the rest of them, that Bella was family, regardless of where she was living or that she had a beating heart.

They started to wander away from the table, everyone going in their own direction now that the meeting was over, but Esme put a hand on Emmett's shoulder before he could get up as well, remembering something. "Your taste in décor needs some work." Esme said softly and watched his face screw up in confusion. "That piece with the pale woman in the black teddy, can you get any more like that? I don't like Bella having to settle for the other tacky pictures you got her, and she seemed to like that one."

Emmett looked sheepish and ran a hand through his hair. "I guess I could look for some."

"Please do, there is no need to be tacky to make her point. There must be a few artistic pictures of women you could give her." Esme almost offered to go with him shopping for them, but then remembered how inappropriate that would look if anyone saw her picking out seductive pictures of women with her 'son'. "Send pictures to my phone before you buy anything, I want to make sure it will go with her room."

"Aren't you going a little far with the decorating dear?" Carlisle spoke up and Esme could see his teasing smile.

"If she's going to have art on her walls, I want it to at least be somewhat artistic." Esme told him and ignored the teasing look he gave her.

After she was done talking with Emmett, Esme did manage to talk Carlisle into a quick hunt. They'd need some privacy to discuss the issues around Edward, and Esme was going to make sure Carlisle saw that it was an issue. They'd indulged Edward too long and now he seemed to be acting like he thought he was the leader in this family, deciding to go to Eleazer, arguing about staying well after the vote was done, and his attitude was poor to say the least.

…

** Emmett Pov**

Emmett gave Rosalie a guilty little smile after Esme left. He was a bit surprised to be sent shopping for 'art' again. "Did you want to come with me?"

"I had better, or you'll spend forever looking." Rosalie sighed, but he noticed a hint of a smile that told him, his wife was amused with his little task. "Tomorrow?"

"Can't, Bella Bear needs a ride into town. She's gonna start job hunting." Emmett reminded her and she nodded.

"Thursday then," Rosalie offered. "Do you have the Anita Blake book I lent you? I'd like to finish it and get it back to Bella."

"Oh, sure." Emmett tried to remember where he'd put it. He also kind of liked that so many of them were reading the same books, so hopefully they'd continue. It was starting to get a little sexy in the last two books, so it would be nice to continue with Rosalie at least. Emmett went outside to get a book out of the Jeep, once he'd remembered it was there.

As he walked to the garage he thought about the meeting they'd had and he was not surprised it hadn't gone too well. He'd actually expected Edward to take the offer to leave for a moment, once it was out of Esme's mouth, and he'd been stunned she'd actually said it. Esme hated when the family was separated, it worried her even though they were vampires.

"I'd find it more likely Bella was a demon sent from Hell to torment me than her story about reincarnation." Edward spoke up from his Volvo, his window down, before stepping out of it. He was whispering and Emmett studied him carefully. It made no sense for him to be out here.

"Bella Bear is no demon, but even if she were it wouldn't matter." Emmett told him and watched Edward grimace.

"Are you even aware of the effect that human is having on this family, on your WIFE?" Edward whispered with a hiss and Emmett knew Rosalie was in the house and wasn't hearing this little betrayal. "She's a human, and the thoughts about her being a part of this family, or being anything to us are unnatural, but Rosalie's are among the most unnatural and you need to stomp that out fast."

Emmett stepped forward and leaned down, his larger frame hovering menacingly over Edward's smug little face. His words were just as quiet a hiss as he leaned down and glared into Edward's face. "Keep your mental powers to yourself and don't go trying to cause trouble in my marriage. You think I don't know? You think I'm so stupid I don't see? I don't care, I love Rose and I don't care so fuck off, it's none of your business." He knew his eyes were black with his anger, imagining the scene Edward was trying to create with his comments. "And if you bother Rosie with your accusations I'll rip you to shreds, do you understand?"

"What kind of a man are you, to let your wife have thoughts like that?" Edward hissed and Emmett just shook his head.

"My wife can have any thoughts she wants." Emmett would love to slam him head first into his precious Volvo, but he took a step back. If it weren't for Esme's likely reaction he might have taught Edward what happened to boys who tried to cause trouble.

He grabbed the book he came out there for and did his best not to slam his Jeep door, before giving Edward a glare and leaving the garage. It wasn't the first time Edward told him he should 'control' his wife, and it was disgusting to hear every single time he heard it. Rose was an Angel, a Force of Nature and no one should ever 'control' her.

He made his way to the living room and handed Rose the book, before moving to sit on the couch with her. Emmett sighed and Rosalie moved on the couch, shifting so she was leaning up against him. He wrapped an arm around her and hugged her to him. "I love you, you know that?" He whispered into her ear and watched her soft smile grow. His Rosie could have any thoughts she wanted, and Emmett really was okay with that. Knowing Rose though, she'd only had a fleeting thought, and dismissed it as impossible. The thing Edward didn't get was that given time his Rosie would tell him her thoughts if they were serious, and that was as it should be.

…


	37. Chapter 37

**Bella Pov**

Alice was still waiting for her in the parking lot, like normal, when Charlie dropped her off the next morning. Bella got out of the car and almost walked away.

"Bells." Charlie spoke up and she turned back to see him waving a piece of paper at her from his opened window. "Your note."

"Oh, thanks." Bella sighed as she took it and he gave her a small smile, before turning to drive away. Bella glanced at the note and then toward the main office.

"We might as well ask about that summer class while we're there." Alice spoke up as she moved up along side Bella.

"They better say yes." Bella muttered and ignored the small laugh Alice gave at that.

"Edward's back." Alice spoke softly as they made their way towards the main office. "He wasn't happy that we're staying."

"Of course not." Bella couldn't keep her irritation out of her voice. It earned her an odd look from Alice.

"Do you know much about him, like you do me?" Alice asked quietly and they stopped just outside of the main office door.

"Look, I know enough to know he and I wouldn't get along." Bella didn't want to go into the 'story' and any mention of Edward might go into that. "I have a mind of my own and don't like other people assuming I don't."

Alice gave her a small hint of a smile. "I don't care for that either." Alice reached out and opened the door.

The woman, Mrs Cope, was standing at the counter and Bella moved with Alice to hand in their notes. "Mrs. Cope, Bella and I would like to sign up for a summer class." Alice smiled brightly at the woman and Bella watched Mrs. Cope's stunned expression for a moment, before the woman collected herself.

"Summer classes are for students behind for graduation." The woman spoke up and Bella stared at her for a moment.

"So if I'm irresponsible and don't do my homework I am 'punished' with summer classes, but if I honestly want to take something over the long and boring summer I am 'punished' with no summer classes?" Bella asked, and she noticed that Mrs. Cope was a little stumped by being pushed on this.

"No, Bella, I'm sure this is about money." Alice told her loud enough for Mrs. Cope to hear. "The school doesn't want to pay teachers to teach in the summer, but perhaps if they had a few openings in a class that was going to happen anyhow and could slip us in, and we offered to pay some tuition, and had our own supplies, like laptops with the software they use in that Video Production class and wouldn't even need to take up a computer,"

"How about I take down your names and numbers and run it past the principal and the instructor." Mrs. Cope finally said something somewhat helpful and Bella followed Alice's lead in writing that information down for her. She wondered if Alice knew when she bought the computers that they would be needed to even get in, because Bella suspected now that it would be the laptops that gave them a shot at the class.

"Thank you." Bella told Mrs. Cope softly, moving closer. "I really want to take that class. In fact we're hoping to get into Advanced for next school year, so we'll put in as much work as it takes to prove we're ready."

Mrs. Cope smiled at her and then briefly at Alice, but Bella got her response. "I can't promise anything, but if you have laptops it will help. You might want to talk to the teacher today before I bring it up, let him know how excited you are to take it. Most kids aren't excited for summer school; I think that might earn you some points." She sounded like she was conspiring with them and Bella smiled and nodded.

Once they were out the main office doors, Alice smiled. "And since you handled Mrs. Cope, I'll talk with the teacher."

"Why?" Bella asked.

"Because I 'know' if I approach him with Jasper, we can make him feel 'cooperative and excited' about students who want his class. Grading apparently takes time and he won't be receptive to more students without a nudge from my man." Alice admitted.

Bella smiled just a little as she realized Alice was moving a lot of pieces around to get what she wanted. It was actually a bit impressive to realize Alice was a planner, a planner and a schemer. "I prefer a more straightforward approach if you ever need to 'play' me." She teased the psychic and got an insulted look in return.

"He was going to say no, I had to change our plans." Alice explained and Bella smirked at her and just walked along beside her. "You wanted that class, and we will have so much fun."

"I'm not criticizing, Alice." Bella took Alice's arm the way Alice usually took her own. "I'm just saying using Jasper is a bit unfair and I hope you skip that part when you want something from me."

Alice gave her a wicked teasing smile. "I don't need Jasper to get things out of you."

Later that day, when Bella was sitting in the library with her lunch she felt cold hands cover her eyes. "Guess who?"

"Tinkerbell?" Bella teased and her vision was restored, to see Alice in front of her with a teasing pout after a moment.

"I was going to say the coolest woman in the world who just got us permission to join that class." Alice told her with a smile by the end of her words.

"That's great." Bella told her, but in all honesty she never thought it was iffy, once Alice started to work on it.

"Yes, I am." Alice laughed and sat down across from her. "So our summer plans are set. We'll take the class and when it's over we'll take our shopping trip." Alice sang out the words 'shopping trip'.

Bella looked at the list she'd been making and spoke softer, finally able to just ask for help. "I'm looking for a summer job that will give me enough hours to start to save up for thing, and help me start to rebuild my resume." Bella pushed her list toward Alice. "Are any of these places a mistake? I've taken jobs only to have them keep my hours low. I'm looking for about 20 to 30 hours during the summer, regularly, and no problems with taking our week off."

Alice took the list from her hands and pulled the pencil Bella had been using out of her hand. "Okay, they aren't hiring, they never hire." Alice crossed off two places right off the bat. "Visit these four." Alice marked four more. "Don't go there, that is one of those places that would have said they could give you twenty hours only to stick you with ten all summer and ask for twenty once school starts." She crossed off another. Alice then set the list down. "You won't be happy at any of these places for long Bella, by the end of the summer you'll be fed up with any of them."

"I don't expect to be happy. I'm not going to be able to get a better job with decent pay until I prove I can show up on time, work hard, and do a good job at something. When I get a car I might be able to try for something a little more challenging, but what idiot would give a sixteen year old any real responsibility? I'm just going to have to make it work, and wait." Bella spoke softly, knowing it would be years before she could get a job that wouldn't make her feel like she'd worked for twenty years only to end up stuck doing things she had been doing at fourteen.

"Okay, well, something better may come along before school starts again, so" Alice handed her the page back. "If you get any offers talk to me before accepting. Once more decisions have been made I'll have a better picture of what would be best." They were alone so it was safe for Alice to be so obvious, but it still felt odd to have her doing this in the school library for Bella.

….

** Emmett Pov**

Alice was with Bella, so it was his turn to be in the cafeteria. He got there early and sat waiting for Rose. He ignored Edward, even as Edward came up to their table and sat down. Jasper made it to their table and still Rosalie was missing.

"Lauren just asked to have a word with her." Edward told him and Emmett remembered Alice's vision, it seemed like so long ago, but he started to grin as he imagined that little discussion going on. He strained his ears to see if he could hear it. He could see Rosalie standing outside the building and down the walkway enough the humans in the cafeteria wouldn't take much notice of this through the large windows, her arms crossed in front of her as she stared at an increasingly nervous looking Lauren.

"I think you and Emmett make a cute couple." Lauren started.

"Thank you." Rosalie's voice was sugary in that way that she got when she was setting someone up and Emmett's grin grew.

"I'd hate for anyone to ruin your relationship." Lauren added.

"So would I." Edward muttered, "But Lauren is lying, she would love for you two to split up."

"She'll have a long wait, like forever." Emmett muttered, irritated at Edward still, and his comment didn't help. "Nothing will split us up."

Lauren started to talk, so Emmett stopped. "I hate to tell you this, but I overheard Bella talking about Emmett, and well, it sounds like she's after him. She was talking about his body, and how he was the catch of your family and she made it sound like she was getting rather intimate with him."

"Oh, I see, you want to save me from Bella stealing my man." Rosalie spoke a little slower.

"Yes, yes, she's trying to steal your man." Lauren agreed quickly. "She even said she'd been feeling his muscles."

"I didn't think that little girl had the courage for this." Jasper muttered and Emmett nodded his agreement.

"Oh I know she has." Rosalie nodded just a little as she spoke and Emmett watched his Rosie lean in closer to Lauren. "I was there." She whispered. "In fact, I'm usually there. This bullshit story of yours won't work, because I watched her feel Emmett's muscles." Emmett blinked and started to grin at the mental picture that was being built by Rosalie's words and tone. "And I trust her with my boyfriend. She's not a whore, like some of the girls I see." Rosalie eyes Lauren obviously. "No, Bella respects her friends and I know she wouldn't go behind any of our backs."

"She's not a little liar, like you." Rosalie had to be glaring at Lauren, because that human started to pale. "I don't want you spreading any more lies about her, not one. And if you ever touch her you will regret it. Do you understand?"

Lauren nodded her head in a jerky fashion and started to back away from Rosalie.

"Rosalie is not making empty threats. How is that not dangerous for us, that she'd be willing to hurt that human for bothering Bella?" Edward spoke up even as Rosalie started to make her way to the doors of the cafeteria.

"I think it's more dangerous for Lauren actually." Emmett ignored Edward's glare and kept his eyes on Rose as she made her way to their table. "And I think my girl is so sexy when she's threatening someone."

"I can't believe that insignificant little toad actually said something." Rosalie said as she sat down beside him. "I feel slimy just having talked to her."

Emmett just wrapped an arm around her and gave her a small grin. He liked how protective Rosalie was of Bella Bear. Edward gave him a disgusted look, which Emmett ignored.

"Do you really trust her like that?" Edward asked and it wasn't clear who he was asking. "You don't think she'll become overly attached to anyone?"

"Not that it applies here, but let me let you in on a little secret." Rosalie spoke quietly. "If you have a mate, you have to make sure that friends like you enough not to try and break up a relationship. I'll admit when I met Tanya, that was on my mind, before she became such a good friend." Rosalie looked over at the teenagers Lauren was sitting with. "Those girls don't have a friendship that would stop any of them but Angela, and that's just because Angela was raised right."

"But Bella Bear is a bit different." Emmett filled in with a smile. "She's my BFF, and she does her damnedest to respect our relationship. Also I've never seen anyone treat Rosie as good as Bella does, even when she doesn't know we're there she treats Rose like the Angel she is." Rosalie went quiet and was watching him, so Emmett found his eyes trailing to her even as he answered Edward. "I don't consider any level attachment Bella gets to us as too much."

Edward gave him a disgusted grunt, but Emmett ignored it in favor of giving Rose a smile. She looked thoughtful, but they continued on with the charade of lunch.

Lunch was over soon enough and Emmett and Rosalie dumped their trays of food before heading for Biology.

"Ready for the test?" Bella asked as they sat at the table with her and Emmett rolled his eyes. He'd taken Biology how many times now? He was ready for the test decades ago.

"You have to ask?" Rosalie spoke gently as she took the seat next to Bella.

"It's almost time to sign up for classes for next year." Bella's voice went quieter. "I'm debating about going with what I know, or going with something new where I could actually learn something."

"Try a little of each." Rosie told her and then the teacher came into the room. "We get you next weekend. Start thinking about what you'd like to do." Rosalie continued and Emmett grinned at them. They both look forward to their Bella weekends, and it was just a shame that Alice and Esme were both in the mix or they'd have more of them. But considering the atmosphere in the family right now, it was a good thing they had shared Bella time.

"Class, put your books away, I'll be handing out the test." The teacher interrupted, but Bella looked so cute with those confused eyes.

"How do I think of something to do? I don't know the weather, and what kind of limits we have." Bella started even as Emmett tossed his book back into his bag.

"We'll talk later." Rose told her and then the teacher hit their row and Bella couldn't hear subwhispers so they had to stop talking to her.

Class was boring and Emmett had to pretend to take longer on that test than it really took. It was kind of neat to see Bella was the third one done, but they had to sit there quietly and Bella pulled out her other homework to try and get it done. Emmett just sighed heavily when he saw that homework come out. Bella liked to leave the school work at school and he understood that but he hated it when she did this in the one class she shared with him.

After school he picked Bella up and drove her to the part of town she considered close enough to walk to from her house. He stood outside of various stores as she went in to apply and talk about the work. She talked for a while with the people in each of the four places and Emmett started to wonder what her real work experience was like, and how she felt about applying to scoop ice cream or wash cars. He kind of hoped she got the car wash, they had enough cars they could bring through here to help keep her busy, and tips were allowed.

…..

** Bella Pov**

They pulled up in front of her house and Bella had barely opened her door when Emmett was there to help her out of his Jeep. She smiled just a little at him as he picked her up and put her on her feet on the ground. "Thank you." Was all she could say. He was convinced she'd break an ankle getting in or out on her own, and it was a bit high. "You coming in?"

"For a while." He said and grabbed something out of the back of the jeep. It was the PS2.

In grabbing a drink, she noticed four messages on the answering machine. Given the last time she had someone over, she decided to check to make sure one wasn't a message telling her Billy Black was coming over again, when she had Emmett over.

"Bella, I've got good news! Answer the phone or call me." Renee's voice filled the room and Bella set her glass down on the counter with a heavy sigh.

"He proposed, right on time." Bella muttered and Emmett sat down at the table. "That's Renee, her first call to her daughter, and I've been here over a month. I knew she'd have to have news to share before she called."

"Bella, you need to call me. Where are you?" The next message started. Bella leaned over the kitchen counter and grimaced. "Schools already out, where are you? Call me as soon as you get in!"

"Wow, she expects you to just sit in this house if you aren't in school." Emmett grimaced.

"Isabella Marie Swan, why aren't you calling me! You haven't called since you left and now you're ignoring my call?" Renee sounded upset.

"Wow, was that ten minutes after her last call?" Bella muttered as she glanced at the face of the voice mail machine. "That is fucking ridiculous, even for her."

"Phil proposed and I need you to come back to Phoenix to help with the wedding." The message finally said why she'd called. "There is so much to do, and he wants to get married this Summer, Married Bella. Isn't this great? Maybe you could come back for good, I found a new doctor that thinks he has the answer. Call me as soon as you hear this!"

"Oh shit, this again." Bella sighed heavily and stared at Emmett.

"You gonna call?" Emmett asked her and Bella shook her head no.

"I want to talk to Charlie first, because clearly this could get ugly, and I want him a part of it from the start in case she decides to play it like I'm the unreasonable one. It sucks being a minor, because if I don't have Charlie's support I have trouble. Thankfully he's pretty damned good to me. I'm not seeing any more doctors, it's gone from annoying to dangerous the minute she started considering drugs or other 'treatments'. I'm sure I'm stuck attending her wedding, but I'm not planning it. What is she thinking? For all she knows I'm a sixteen year old kid with amnesia and she wants me to plan her wedding. Well, for once she's asked for something I don't know how to do."

"I'm glad that's not your real mother." Emmett said quietly. "I think this would hurt a hell of a lot more if she were."

"Oh yeah, definitely would." Bella muttered, "But my mom was responsible and strong. She held things together even when we didn't have enough. Losing Dad nearly devastated her, but she was bouncing back before she was killed." Bella glared at the phone. "My mom had real problems, and suffered a hell of a lot, and she died hard too, and listening to this whiny woman grates on me, really grates on me."

"How did your mom die?" Emmett asked softly and Bella felt tears prickle her eyes as she remembered. It had been so many years, but it was still so hard to talk about. The Psychologists had always pushed her to talk, but she couldn't then. She barely could now.

"She left the house for an interview, and Danny was away for most of the day. I was away at college, but I was going to be home in three more weeks. I heard that it wasn't until the next morning that anyone realized she hadn't come home." Bella watched the tears fall onto the kitchen counter as she stared at it. "She was naked when they found her, I'm sure you understand what happened. My mom died that way, my mom." Her voice shook and she was in strong arms before she could finish the pained whimper.

"Oh god, I'm so sorry." Emmett held her tight. He held her and gently rubbed her back. Bella gripped his sides and leaned into his body. It was an old wound and she didn't burst into sobs, but his arms stayed around her as she took shaky breaths.

"The school counselor referred me to a psychologist when I admitted to why I needed to withdraw from my classes so late in the semester, I needed to plan another funeral. I can plan funerals, but Renee wants me to plan weddings. I can't plan those."

"I'm so sorry this happened to your family Bella." Emmett whispered into her hair, and she knew he had to be bent over a bit to do that.

Bella took a deep breath and nodded, but she noticed he wasn't letting go of her, so she didn't pull away.

They stood like that, him holding her, until they were interrupted. "Bella?" Charlie's voice was firm and cold and Bella found she was able to pull away from Emmett then. She could see Charlie's expression was stony, but once he got a look at her face it became more concerned. "What's wrong?"

Bella shrugged and glanced at the phone. It was all she had to blame this on. "Renee called. She wants me to call her back."

Charlie looked between her and Emmett, who stood behind her. "What did she say?" His stony demeanor was coming back, but this time it wasn't directed at Emmett at all.

"She wants me to come back and plan her wedding, and then she wants me to see a new doctor who thinks he can 'fix me'. It sounds like if I can be 'fixed' she wants me back. I don't want to go back." Bella let her voice crack, it wasn't hard she was just getting over a tough conversation.

Charlie's eyes were hard. "You won't go back Bella. You live here now and she can't kick you out and then drag you back. It doesn't work that way." He moved forward to rest a hand on her shoulder, "Don't you worry, you live here now." He stared into her eyes and then she saw him look over her shoulder and give Emmett and approving nod. "I'll take care of this. You two go play."

Emmett grabbed her glass for her, and the PS2 as they left the kitchen. Charlie was pacing in front of the phone as they started up the stairs.

"You'd make a good vampire, you think quick on your feet." Emmett muttered quietly as they got to the top of the stairs.

"Speaking of vampires, you didn't catch the human sneaking up on us?" Bella asked just as softly, but she just turned to see his eyes and knew Emmett had not been paying any attention to anything but her and his own thoughts. "It's okay. I wanted him involved with the Renee mess anyhow." But she did feel bad that Charlie was in overprotective father mode with his ex as the target now. It wouldn't be an easy conversation for him, but one she'd needed him to have with Renee for a while now.

Emmett set up the game, but he was moving a bit slower. She just watched him, and it wasn't hard to see he was a man, and not a boy in this moment. His expression was more serious and he'd been so gentle and supportive. He hadn't been lost when she started to tear up, and he'd been able to just be the shoulder to cry on. He was so youthful and playful most of the time, but when he needed to be a man, he was fully capable of it. "I love you, you know. You are the best friend I've ever had." He told her, or her reflection in the television at least.

"I love you too." Bella told him just as honestly.

"You ever need a shoulder, I have two really broad ones." He gave her a gentle smile as he turned around, the TV behind him coming to life.

"Good to know." She gave him a soft smile and took the controller he held out for her.


	38. Chapter 38

**Emmett Pov**

One good thing about coming back home after Bella admitted how her mother died, was that Edward heard that in his mind, because Emmett couldn't stop thinking about it, and stopped mid sentence in demanding they talk to Bella soon about getting the full story out of her.

Emmett stood in the main room of the house, and looked around at his family, his eyes searching for his mate. If Rosie hadn't been found by Carlisle that night, as she lay dying after the brutal rapes she'd endured, she would have died just like Bella's mother. A brutal, horrific ending of a life so precious to him. He understood how Bella felt, when she said her mom, her MOM, had gone through that. There was nothing to do but repeat it in your head, and he ached that Bella understood the pain he lived with, and he hated himself a little in that he'd been grateful it was Bella's mother, and not Bella herself. That she hadn't come to him quite as damaged as his Rosalie had been. "I think we should go hunting." He told her once he's spotted her. He didn't want to tell her what he'd learned, he'd rather never tell her, but he didn't want it to come out as a surprise to her. That would be worse.

"I'm reading, and I went a few days ago. So did you." Rosalie spoke up softly, stubbornly and Emmett sighed heavily.

"Rosalie, for once, just do what your husband says." Edward spoke and his words were cutting, but his tone wasn't. Emmett glanced at Edward to see he had his head in his hands.

Rosalie looked up, her eyes hard for a moment, but when she saw Emmett, they widened. "Emmett?"

"I think we'll need to hunt." He told her flatly and she stood up and put the book down on the seat she'd been on. Her expression was wary and he tried to give her a reassuring smile. They left without saying much else to anyone, but Alice's expression was serious and she nodded to him, so it was some reassurance that he was doing this the right way. They ran from the house and he took her much further than was needed for privacy, deep into the woods so no one would hear them.

"What is it?" She asked when he stopped.

"I found out how Bella's real mother died." He moved to lean on a boulder, as he watched his mate go from puzzled to concerned. Rosalie's eyes pierced him as he forced himself to finish what he'd started. "She was attacked like you were."

Bella wasn't touched in the same way as Rose had been, but the same violence had ripped her apart and Emmett hated that. He hadn't been able to tell the others, it wasn't something you shared casually, but he had to tell Rose. Rose stared at the trees, her arms wrapped around her body, as the words sunk in. He flinched when she started to growl and he stood still and watched as she tore down trees with her bare hands. Once she slowed down he moved slowly to stand in front of her, and pulled her gently into his arms. His shirt still smelled of Bella and Rosalie was taking deep breaths of the scent. "Wasn't her, it wasn't her." Was muttered into his chest with too much desperation and he held Rosalie tight. She'd gone to the same place in her mind that he had. It was horrible for Bella, but it wasn't her, thank god it wasn't her.

The wildlife population suffered that night. She'd looked haunted for a few days, but only when she was home, being quiet, at school Rose put in an amazing effort to be normal, to treat Bella normally, and to not bring it up. She wasn't completely successful though, because Emmett noticed that Rosalie held Bella's hand quite a bit in Biology class, just under the table, where no one else would see. Bella had given him a concerned look a time or two, but she'd just let Rosalie do whatever she needed to do, and Emmett loved that about Bella.

For having shared something so painful, Bella seemed to be doing well. She was a little more touchy with Emmett, resting her hand on his arm at times, or leaning against him. She'd never treated him strangely, she didn't have the abused vibe that he'd gotten off of Rosalie when they first got together, but she was far more comfortable with him now. Even the others had noticed, and he'd gotten a few raised eyebrows, but no one asked.

The strange quiet agreement to leave Bella alone lasted a week, before Edward brought the 'story' up again. "I think it's time to approach her about that story now." Edward said from his place at the piano, while most of them sat in the main room.

"I agree." Jasper added and Rosalie didn't look upset so Emmett waited to hear the rest. "Perhaps Rosalie can ask her this weekend, since you two have called 'dibs' on her." He gave Emmett a small smirk, and Emmett shook his head with a little grin. Sending Rose after Bella was almost as unfair as sending Jasper after her with his powers. "Bella's a bit of a wreck, trying to plan your 'date'." Jasper teased and Emmett sent a wave of amusement toward him as Edward's lips pursed in disapproval.

"Well, what are you two doing for your date with her next week? Maybe that would give her some ideas." He raised his eyebrows meaningfully.

"Nothing that interesting." Alice spoke up from her place on the couch, and she didn't even look up from her book. "If you don't want to be stuck with a movie marathon, you had better tell Bella something. She won't make plans for your money, and she just started her new job, so she has no money of her own."

"Well, if we're trying to romance the 'story' out of her," Rosalie spoke up and Emmett loved how she said that, as if it really were a seduction. It was a hint that Rose was feeling better, to even be able to tease like this again. They were all fucking with Edward, because he'd made one too many insinuations about the couples taking Bella out. "Perhaps we could take her to a nice beach. It's supposed to be warm but overcast isn't it Alice?"

"Yes, no sun on the Washington coast all weekend." Alice spoke as if she were a weatherman, all while never looking up from the Anita Blake book in her hand. "You might even be able to get Charlie's permission to take his daughter overnight, he has fishing plans for Sunday."

"We can 'take' her all day and night?" Emmett teased wickedly and Edward made a disgusted sound. "That sounds downright fun."

"Yes, it does, doesn't it?" Alice smirked as she answered him.

"Stop it, stop it, it's despicable to joke about a woman's virtue like this." Edward finally cracked.

"Yes, but it's born again virtue." Jasper spoke up, "Not as virtuous."

"You fought so hard to stay with her and be her friend, but what kind of friends are you?" Edward accused with a harsh voice.

"I believe that would be friends with benefits." Emmett added with a grin. That sent Edward outside. Emmett wasn't the only one who chuckled when that happened.

"Did you really want to try the beach? Where is a good one?" Emmett asked Rosalie more seriously after they'd driven Edward away.

Alice spoke up again, this time lowering the book. "I know of a place with private access to the beach and a private hot tub. It's like a cabin on the beach."

"Oh, I like that." Rosalie spoke up. Emmett realized that Rose was serious about an overnight stay. She looked more herself than she had all week, the haunted look in her eyes was gone.

"She's going to have to work Friday night, and she really is bad about early mornings." Alice warned them.

"But she is willing to sleep in the car." Rosalie added as she clearly started to plan the weekend.

"She'll need some clothes, I didn't see any swimsuits in her room." Alice started to smile. "I'll pick something up for you to give her."

"Before you get too far, shouldn't we actually call her and ask if she likes the idea?" Emmett finally had to say.

Alice paused and stared at the wall, before she smiled. "She'll love it." Rose's smile at those words was radiant and Emmett felt a soft ache in his chest at seeing it, it was beautiful, and it was real.

…

** Bella Pov**

"So, your new job," Charlie sat at the dining table with dinner in front of him, talking. Bella smiled just a little at the way he tried so hard. "How was it?"

"A little cold." Bella told him with a small smile when he rolled his eyes. "It isn't bad. I'll have to develop more willpower, obviously, or I'll gain thirty pounds over the summer." She worked at the ice cream parlor. It made sense to her, they'd need someone to work more in the warmer months, and that was what she needed. Alice agreed they would keep her busy all summer, and that was worth believing, because Bella needed a car, and once she had a car she could get a better job. She had it planned. "My arm is a bit sore, I don't have scooping muscles yet." Charlie chuckled at her.

"You did tell them about that week in June?" He asked and Bella sighed heavily.

"Yeah, and the one in August too, they were fine with it." Bella was going to the wedding in June, but she wasn't planning the thing. She'd be there four days and Bella wasn't going to any more doctors. No treatment would happen without Charlie's approval, he'd put his foot down and Bella was relieved. He also made it very clear that Bella was happy living with him and didn't want to leave. She hadn't seen the argument, but he'd told her what he'd managed to make clear to Renee.

Just after dinner was over the phone rang. Charlie picked it up as Bella was putting her dishes in the dishwasher. "Bells, it's for you." That was still odd to hear whenever it happened, but Bella took the phone.

"Alice said you had no ideas, so I came up with a little trip." Rosalie spoke and her voice was animated. "We want you for Saturday and Sunday, because we're going to the beach, a real beach not the one we have here. It's a little place near Ocean Shores."

Bella started to smile as she realized they were planning a tiny little vacation with her. "Charlie, Rose wants me to go with her to Ocean Shores this weekend."

"That's a big drive Bells, we have closer beaches." Charlie looked a bit puzzled.

"Tell him we have a hotel room, and Esme's willing to lie about being a chaperone." Rose told her. Bella pulled the phone from her face before talking again.

"Esme got us some rooms at a place there and we'll get to play for two days." She smiled at him. It still felt odd to have to ask once in a while, but she did and right now she was hoping she would get a yes. Rose sounded so thrilled with her plans and that was enough reason to want to go. Rose had been a little odd for a week, a little clingy and Bella was fine with that, but it concerned her. The timing was clear, as soon as Emmett knew how Bella's mother died, Rosalie was both withdrawn and clingy. Bella knew how Rosalie's last night as a human had gone, it had been very hard to read in the books, and her heart ached even more to think about it now that she knew the blonde vampire.

"Alright, alright, but the boys better not be sharing a room with you." He muttered. Bella didn't bother pointing it out to him that he was still worrying about boys when it was women he should worry about. Making him aware of that wasn't in her best interest if she still wanted to do sleep overs and such with Alice or Rosalie, without having to explain to him why that was still okay.

"We'll pick you up at eight in the morning on Saturday." Rosalie's words started to make her regret saying yes. "But you can sleep in the back on the way there if you need to. I'll keep Emmett quiet for you. Alice is getting you something you can wear, because you need a bathing suit."

"The ocean might be a bit cold for me." Bella spoke up with a grimace. She'd have fun on the beach, but cold water wasn't fun.

"We have a hot tub as well." Rosalie told her with obvious pleasure and Bella stopped moving for a moment, wondering if a hot tub would make her smell even more like dinner to them.

"This will be fun." Bella said softly, deciding to trust Rosalie to tell her if it was too much. She'd be a little irritated if it wasn't a problem, because she'd been taking cold, miserable, showers for a month before seeing them thinking that would help. If it didn't she made herself miserable for no reason.

"Yes, it will." Rosalie told her just as softly and Bella smiled. Her life had never been this good. She never had time to get lonely. It was strange, because she was so used to lonely.

…..

** Bella Pov**

"So Bella Bear." Emmett spoke from the backseat, after they'd passed a billboard with a male model on it. Rosalie was driving, and they were heading over to Highway 101. "I just have to ask, now that you have a history and all," She turned in her seat to see his mischievous grin. "Have you seen a real penis before?"

"Jesus." Bella blushed and turned her head away from him. When she did that she noticed that Rosalie gave her a curious glance as well. "Sure, from across the room as I was leaving a college party. It had gotten out of control." She sighed. "And of course you can find pictures on the internet if you're curious."

"Are you," Emmett paused dramatically, "curious, Bella Bear?" His grin was wicked and evil and she gave him a glare, doing her best to ignore her blush.

"Ass." She muttered and ignored the question. She did notice Rosalie was being of no help, and the blonde vampire was smiling just a little.

"What about the ladies Bell?" Emmett pushed and Bella sighed heavily.

"A few, I've been with a few." She admitted and did her best to ignore the ringing in her ears at his amused whoop.

"So how did you line up the ladies?" It felt like an interrogation and Bella gave him a quick look, as she debated about answering these questions, but then they were her friends and they just lately found they could ask about her past.

"Usually, it was 'hey, want to go to my dorm?" Bella grimaced and rolled her eyes at her own history. "Most of my sexual history was in college Emmett. I can see you making up all sorts of exciting stories in your head, but I promise you I didn't have that much fun."

"You broke his heart." Rosalie teased.

"Actually I think I broke his growing," Bella smirked and couldn't dodge the playful slap to the back of her head. Emmett, thankfully, knew he had to be gentle. "Oh don't be embarrassed Emmett, I'm sure even if it were full grown your pants would hide the little guy just fine."

Emmett leaned into her, and whispered into her ear, "I brought speedos. After this weekend you won't be calling anything of mine little."

Rosalie chuckled. "Boys and their toy."

"Hey!" He protested and Bella found herself grinning at the two of them. "You like my 'toy' just fine."

"Of course I do dear, but I didn't expect you to want to show it off like it was the latest PS2 game. Poor Bella doesn't care." Rosalie smirked and Bella blushed just a little as she turned to look out the window.

"If Bella didn't care she wouldn't be looking up pictures of dick on the internet." Emmett sounded smug as hell and Bella found being trapped in a car with two vampires was not a good idea. Her blush grew and she gritted her teeth and tried to ignore it. She reached down and cracked the window opened, just in case. Rosalie cracked her window open as well.

"So," Rosalie spoke up slowly. "If you went to college, what did you major in?" It was obvious that the female vampire was trying to keep the topic to something that wouldn't have Bella blushing.

"I just went with Liberal Arts. They had the best times for classes, but after I got out I decided I should have majored in something else, something that would be easier to sell to employers." Bella took the hint and did her best to ignore the old topic and focus on this uninteresting one. "This time I'm definitely going to pick from the safer majors. I want to be able to find work."

"What kind of work?" Emmett asked.

"Whatever pays." Bella grimaced. "I can't expect Charlie to take care of me forever. I'm going to have to be able to take care of myself."

"So what are your big plans for your second life?" Emmett asked her and Bella glanced back at him to see a serious expression on his face.

"When you say it that way my plans don't seem big enough." She gave Emmett a small smile, but she frowned just after that as she considered the question.

"I need to spend high school building up a bit of a resume, start to move toward something I could make work through college. I'm aiming for office work at this point, but I have to start somewhere. I'll start doing the volunteer work the scholarships want me to have in Junior year."

"Where would you volunteer?" Rosalie asked. "The grade schools?"

"Ugh, no." Bella shook her head and sighed. "I don't actually like kids. I might pick an animal shelter, or a food bank. Maybe a cause, I'm not sure. I'll going to be researching what I can get too, so I can volunteer, over the summer."

"You don't like kids?" Rosalie asked and Bella stopped talking as she realized Rose was stuck on that thought. Bella grimaced as she realized her mistake.

In a softer voice, Bella answered. "I don't really have that maternal instinct. I've never been comfortable with kids and I've never really wanted any. When I was a kid people told me I'd change my mind, and when I was in college they said I would change my mind. Everyone assumes a woman will want kids at some point. I was thirty five when I died and I hadn't reached that point yet. It's not in me." Bella kept her eyes on Rosalie, even though she could almost feel Emmett staring at the back of her head, while Rose stared out the window, as if she needed to watch the road very carefully. "I've seen people who have kids because that's what they are 'supposed to do', and I won't do that to myself or kids." She could have easily just said she wasn't sleeping with men, so getting pregnant wasn't likely, but Rosalie would need more. Bella knew the vampire regretted her inability to have a child more than anything, and this was a sensitive topic to hit. She wished she hadn't accidently hit it. "I'm sorry."

Rosalie turned her head to look at her, really studied her face and Bella felt awkward in the endless second. "You know, you obviously know, I'm one of those women who wanted that, all of that." Bella nodded. "It's going to take me a little while to absorb that you could have it and you don't want it. I wanted it so bad."

Bella reached out and rested a hand on Rose's leg, wishing her big mouth hadn't gotten her into this conversation. While she hated reminding Rosalie about this, she also was afraid this was going to be the end of this friendship, that it was something Rose would hate her for.

"Why do you smell afraid?" Rosalie asked after a moment, and her hand moved down to rest on Bella's. Bella felt a large hand move to rest on her shoulder, and saw Emmett do the same to Rose.

"I don't want you to hate me for this." Bella admitted, because their senses ruined her ability to hide it.

Rose squeezed her hand gently and gave a weak smile. "You have different dreams, nothing wrong with that."

After a few minutes of silence Emmett spoke up. "If you work at an animal shelter, can you bring me home dinner once in a while? We never get take out." Bella smiled and noticed that even Rosalie managed to smile at that.


	39. Chapter 39

** Bella pov**

It was still morning when they turned off the highway, "We'll need some groceries." Rosalie told them even as she pulled into the Safeway parking lot. "The place isn't too far from here." Bella almost felt like apologizing for needing groceries, but the vampires looked a little pleased to have a reason to go grocery shopping. "You'll need meals. We booked the place as long as we could, and if we leave after dinner tomorrow I can still get you back before curfew." Rosalie said as Bella got out of the car. "Of course you need snacks too."

"Oh, oh, I want to pick out the food." Emmett sounded excited and Bella started to walk faster to catch up with Rosalie.

"Don't let him pick out the food." She whispered, even knowing Emmett could hear her. "He probably couldn't keep a gold fish alive, I don't want him experimenting with me."

"Hey!" He stopped and turned around. "Why would I want a stupid fish?" Bella tried not to smile at his dumb act. He winked at her when she wasn't completely successful.

Rosalie took control of the cart, and Bella walked along with her picking up a few things. "Hey, does the place have a microwave?" Bella asked as they stood in front of the rotisserie chickens and when she got a yes to the question she just grabbed two of them. No cooking necessary. She didn't want to waste her time with them with cooking, not when it was all just for her.

"Hungry?" Rosalie raised an eyebrow, proving she knew how much most humans ate for a meal.

"Lunch dinner, Lunch dinner again." Bella grinned, pleased with herself.

"No, no no." Rosalie took one of the chickens and put it back. "You aren't going to eat just one thing the entire time. Everyone will think I don't know how to care for you."

"I don't want us to waste time with my food." Bella leaned in towards Rose to whisper.

"I rented the place with a kitchen because I expected we'd have to cook for you Bella. It isn't a problem." Rosalie pulled the other chicken out of the cart.

"I'd actually like one for lunch at least." Bella said and the chicken went back into the cart. They could use whatever leftover meat there was in whatever they made for dinner, but if it required cooking Rosalie would probably be alright with it. Bella did wonder if her vampires did compare notes and talk about who wasn't able to 'maintain' the human. Poor Alice would have lost that game in Portland if they did, and it wasn't even her fault.

Rosalie steered them away from the deli to things that would actually need to be cooked. Since it was just the three of them and no one here knew why they were buying groceries they just bought what Bella herself would need and no extra food to pretend they'd eat it.

The cabin wasn't far from the store, but it was remote, and the street they ended up on was clearly only wide enough for one car on the road and one on the shoulder waiting to be passed. They stopped at a house to pick up the key and continued down the road to the cabin.

It was a small, intimate cabin directly on the beach, and Bella took in the obvious care someone took of it and the large deck that held a good sized hot tub that overlooked the ocean. She started to smile and looked over to see the other two looking pleased. The soft kiss Rose gave Emmett made her feel a little like a third wheel on a honeymoon, but the look Rosalie gave her after she pulled away was too soft and welcoming to feel in the way long.

Emmett grabbed their bags and Bella grabbed the food before Rosalie could, and they went in to explore the place they'd spend the next day and half in.

The cabin opened up into a room that had to take up half of the place. An intimate living room with a fireplace was to the left, and one wall of that room was French doors that led out to the deck and the hot tub that was easily visible. There was a pergola over the deck providing some shade in the sun and some protection from the rain. Bella watched the waves hit the beach with a smile, anticipating opening the window and being able to sleep to that sound. To the right in the room there was a dinette and one wall held the kitchenette. Bella headed toward that with her groceries.

Emmett had gone into another room and put the bags down before slipping back out to stand with Rosalie looking out the French Doors. "Looks like enough beach for you Bella Bear?"

"I think it'll do." She tossed the empty grocery bags into a drawer and moved to glance at the tiny hall that had two doors in it. She didn't resist glancing in the rooms, and the bathroom was very nice. The bedroom had a large bed. "Ah, one bedroom guys." She told them and pulled herself back into the main room.

"Yes, it's yours." Rosalie told her and Bella felt a little awkward. Sure they didn't sleep, but perhaps they'd want to do other things and now they didn't have a room for that. "If anyone comes to ask its 'ours' and Emmett is sleeping on the couch. It's a fold out bed."

Bella nodded, but gave Emmett an apologetic look. "Sorry, about the bed."

He grinned at her, "Don't be, we still have the hot tub, the couch, the dining table, the beach, the floor, the wall over there." He pointed at a wall and Bella started blushing as she couldn't help but visualize some of this. Rosalie chuckled at him.

"We'll be fine Bella." Rose told her with that soft smile and Bella felt her heart beat a little faster, so she tore her eyes away from Rose and stared out the window they'd been staring out.

"So, anyone want to try and make sand sculptures?" Bella asked and willed the thoughts of Rose and Emmett having sex all over the cabin while she was sleeping out of her head. For once she might have a different reason for not being able to sleep.

"Hell yeah." Emmett grinned and tossed open the French doors. He was out on the beach in no time at all and Bella slowly followed with Rosalie in tow.

"I hope you realize he likes to sculpt sexual scenes." Rose told her quietly. "This beach is going to become NC-17."

"Can they kick us out for that?" Bella asked even as Emmett found the spot he wanted to work on.

"I paid for a private beach, so if I accidently destroy it before we leave they won't ban us in the future." Rosalie smiled at her and Bella liked the idea of future trips. She moved a few feet from Emmett and started to pull sand into a pile while Rosalie sat on a chaise lounge on the beach and watched them. Bella was going to try and get Rosalie out helping as well, but first she just focused on moving sand. It was hardly fair though, because Emmett made the pile so very fast.

Bella had a good pile of sand when she looked up again and she grimaced at the progress Emmett was making. "Hardly fair, you ass." She muttered and he just laughed at her.

"Here." Rosalie stood up from her chair and shook her head. "Boy against girls." Rose said and walked toward Bella. Bella smiled gratefully and they started planning what they'd turn that pile of sand into. Rosalie moved that sand around far faster than Bella had been and the size of the project grew to be more equal to Emmett's pile.

"Really, that big?" Bella raised an eyebrow at Emmett's creation, clearly a very buxom woman, laying on her side. "No one is that stacked, it's impossible."

"Shut it, no art critics allowed on the beach." Emmett smirked and continued shaping that bust line.

Rosalie was working more seriously now and Bella found herself focusing on a single leg while the rest of the leopard took shape, laying down on the sand. Just because Emmett was doing it dirty didn't mean they had to. "I love leopards, they are so delicious." Rosalie muttered and Bella paused in her work, as she absorbed that.

"I feel like that about turkey." She added, lost as to what to say about Rose's comment. That had the blonde looking up at her and smirking.

"Good to know, but just so you know, poultry blood isn't really good." Rose told her.

Bella grinned, "More for me then."

"Nice pussy you two have." Emmett joked as he stopped to look at their work.

"You too." Bella glanced at the crotch he'd been sculpting. His laugh was loud and wild as she grinned at him.

They finished just in time for Bella to get some lunch. She noticed Rose taking a picture of their leopard with her cellphone and smiled, hoping to get a copy of it later.

She ate and they played in the sand and in the ocean. Bella didn't go out further than her knees though and Rosalie didn't let Emmett tease her for not wanting to be cold.

When she got a little tired she moved to sit on the chaise lounge and watched the other two play with a smile on her lips. Emmett made a huge production of trying to splash Rose, but he never really did. They moved at human pace, with occasional bursts of speed. Emmett proved to her that he could hold his breath for as long as he wanted, by staring at her with a smirk and ducking under the waves. After a while Bella couldn't help but feel uncomfortable when he didn't stand up again.

Rose started walking out of the waves and her shorts and tshirt clung to her every curve. The tips of her hair were wet and she brushed then back behind her when they tried to stick to her chest. No woman on TV ever compared to Rosalie walking out of the ocean like a goddess. Bella couldn't even blink as she watched. Some part of her tried to get her to look away, to blink, to appear normal, but it took the splash of Emmett resurfacing to tear her eyes away and the water hit her even from as far away as she was, drenching her. Emmett laughed and Bella did her best to push her wet hair out of her face. "Classic, man, where is a camera when you need one?"

"Ass." Bella muttered, but she was actually a little grateful for the cold shower she'd been given. She didn't want to drool in front of Rose, she really didn't want to, but the vampire was a goddess stepping out of the water.

"Hot tub and dinner, or dinner and hot tub?" Rosalie asked her calmly as she came up to Bella and ran her hand through Bella's hair, straightening some mess Bella couldn't see. The slight hint of a smile was too sexy and Bella blushed and looked away. "How hungry are you?" Rose spoke softly.

"I could eat." She managed, and caught the amused look on Emmett's face as he trudged out of the water to join them. His hair clung to his head and his shirt looked painted on. He shook his head when he got close to them, sending droplets of water all over Bella, but given how wet she was it didn't matter.

…..

** Emmett Pov**

He watched Bella drip her way through the living room to make it to the bathroom and chuckled as she did it. Bella looked like a cat that had been forced to swim, all scraggly and awkward.

"Can you set up the iPod on the deck? I'd like some soft music while we hot tub." Rosalie said as she stood by him wringing out her shirt.

"Sure thing." He still had his keys in his pocket so we walked along the outside of the house to get the iPod and the speaker out of the car. After he had the music going on the deck he took his shirt off and draped it over a chair, before going inside. It reduced the mess he'd make when he went inside.

Rose was busy making some noodles and using the leftover chicken for it. It smelled disgusting, but it must be okay for Bella. "Hey Babe." He said as he came up behind her and gently put his arms around her from behind as she cooked. He could see the hint of a smile she gave him, but she stayed focused on the food she was making.

They could hear the water running, and the slap of something hitting the ground. "Bella Bear dropped the soap." Emmett grinned as he imagined that. Rose let out a huff of air and didn't comment on his teasing.

"I'm surprised how innocent she still is, given how old she was." Rosalie spoke up and leaned back into him as they waited for the concoctions on the stove to need stirring. "Her family's death came at a bad time for her development."

"Using that Psychology degree now Rose?" Emmett teased, but he could see the truth in the words.

"It isn't like we haven't all majored in that at one time." She shook her head at his teasing and didn't joke back. "Did you notice she's planned her way right out of living? She's so task oriented she doesn't leave room to grow, to meet someone, to find love. All of her plans are designed to get back the life she had and I don't get the impression she liked that life all that much." Emmett frowned as he considered Rose's words and hugged her a little tighter. Bella's plans, the ones she'd shared in the car, were dry and boring.

"Well, what can we do?" He could clearly see Bella Bear was in a rut and couldn't even see it.

"Everything in her life changed and maybe she takes comfort in keeping the same old plans, but she's making a mistake. She needs someone to shake up her life plan and make her see she has options again." Rose's words made sense.

The water stopped running and Bella would be out soon enough. "Nice idea, but I have no clue how that would work Rose." Emmett sighed.

"I'll figure something out." Rose sighed and then reached forward to stir the chicken concoction. "Why don't you shower first, and put on those speedos you were so eager to show her?"

"You could join me." Emmett grinned and ignored the swat to his stomach.

"Maybe later. We have plans and showering with you would leave Bella alone far too long." Rose sounded firm, so Emmett knew to let it go, but the comment about later was promising. Sounded like when Bella Bear was getting some sleep he'd be getting some loving.

He headed into the bedroom to find his bag and pull out the speedo's he brought. He grinned as his hand reached into the bag and he heard Bella's footsteps coming his way. Turning with speedo's in hand he held them up for her to see with a grin and then froze as he say her stop, eyes wide, in the doorway wearing nothing but a towel.

"I forgot some dry clothes." Bella stammered, blushing all the way down to her cleavage and Emmett blinked just a moment as he took in that blush. "Ah, can I?" Bella used the one hand not holding her towel on tight to wave toward the bags.

"Oh, sure." Emmett nodded and waved his speedos at her. "I remembered my clothes. I think Rosie has your bathing suit in her bag." He turned to open Rose's bag and started to hunt for the blue suit that Alice got Bella.

He could hear Bella shifting a little nervously on her feet and smiled as he found Rose's red bikini and pulled it out to set on the bed. "Here it is." He said before looking to see Bella's wide eyes. He scratched his bare chest for a moment and grinned, before reaching back into the bag for the one piece and flung it at Bella's head. "No, that's yours."

"Ass." Bella muttered as she pulled the suit off her head and he chuckled while walking past her for the shower.

"Did you want to see my ass?" Emmett teased and started to undo his shorts as he was walking slipping them down just a little so she could see some of that ass, just some. He could hear Bella turn to say something and then nothing, he'd stunned her silent. His grin grew as he stepped into the bathroom and shut the door.

"Emmett, behave." Rose spoke quietly from the kitchen and he could hear the amusement in her voice.

He showered off the scent of the ocean, as he listened to Rose compliment Bella's new swim suit. Bella also started eating and Emmett was almost out of the shower when the bathroom door opened. He knew who it was and he left the water running with a smile as Rosalie stepped into the large shower with him, even though she was wearing the clothes she'd worn in the ocean and kissed him firmly. Her hand trailed down his chest and his body tensed a little as she wrapped it around his growing erection.

"You were naughty, teasing Bella like that." Rose whispered as she stroked him slowly. When he started to pump his hips she squeezed just a little tighter and then let go. "Get dressed and keep her company while I shower." Her grin was evil as she pushed him out of the shower.

"That was cruel." Emmett muttered, even as he heard Rose chuckled and then start to strip out of her wet clothes. Emmett grimaced as he dried off, but when he held up his speedos he stared down at his hard on and wasn't sure how the hell he'd get them on. One hand moved down to see if he could relieve the pressure a little himself.

"Bella's waited long enough, you get dressed and get out there." Rose spoke firmly and Emmett shook his head at his playful mate, before working himself into the speedos. It was uncomfortable as he tucked himself in and the bulge was very obvious. "You wanted her to know it didn't require a microscope to see."

"I will get even." Emmett teased back and then just shrugged and flung the bathroom door open to walk out with confidence. He managed to swipe Rose's bikini as he did that, leaving her wet clothes or nothing, not even a towel, because he had that wrapped around his shoulders.


	40. Chapter 40

** Bella Pov**

Bella had not seen men in speedos, or really looked if she had, but she was pretty sure Emmett was right. There was nothing small about it at all. It was awkward to look over the dining table, to look over her dinner and see almost all of Emmett. His speedo covered very little and his muscles were everywhere. She'd gotten a good view of his chest in the bedroom, but still it was impressive. Bella remembered watching He-man cartoons as a kid, and Emmett could easily pass for those characters, especially in his speedo. For someone who usually acted like such a boy, Bella had never seen such a man as the body in front of her. If Rose was a goddess, and she was, then Emmett was a god. It was kind of perfect actually, that they were together, because no one else would measure up to them. Who knew Emmett was packing all that?

She managed to drag her eyes up to his face after a moment, but it was harder than it should be. His knowing smirk irritated her when she noticed it. "You should so go as a character from He-man for Halloween." She teased weakly, a little dismayed that her voice came out quite that weak.

"Was that a comment about my muscles or my big sword?" Emmett joked, before stepping closer to the table, but he didn't sit down. "My sword is big, isn't it?" He pressured her and Bella struggled, really struggled not to look. He gave her a small smile. "Too late, I know you want to look Bella Bear. Just do it and get it out of your system." He was so damned smug and Bella stared him in the eye, she knew better than to look right now, he'd never stop teasing her, for eternity, she was pretty sure, it would be his favorite story. "Okay, your loss." He was still smug looking as he pulled out a chair and put that 'big sword' out of visual range. He put some red fabric on the table and sat back, looking very comfortable in next to nothing.

"I'm missing a pair of socks, seems like you found them." Bella teased him, having to get that smugness out of him, and a little venom was in the words that was more directed at herself. She had wanted to look, and she was a bit upset with herself for barely resisting when she knew the consequences. She watched him pout with some satisfaction. Bella started to eat her dinner again, but no matter how hard she tried to look him in the face, it was hard not to let her eyes travel down. He was getting more and more amused and Bella was getting irritated with herself. "So I thought blood was needed to get an erection." She raised an eyebrow as she did her best to seem unaffected.

"Fluid, venom works just as well and that's what I have flowing in me." He waved one hand in a circle lower over his body, as if pointing out the current flow. He then reached up to start to towel off his hair, but a strong breeze came through, smelling like Rose and Bella swore she saw a blur of skin color, before she looked back at Emmett and he was holding nothing in his hands. He just shrugged and grinned.

"You didn't." Bella stared at him. He forced Rosalie to have to streak into the living room. Bella was grateful she could move so fast, but knowing she'd been right there, naked, Bella's blush grew embarrassingly.

"Well, she started it." He pouted. "She gave me a woody and pushed me out of the shower." Bella just stared at him, unblinking, as he ratted Rosalie out and suddenly his joke wasn't so over the top. "See, it was completely fair." He nodded.

"Okay, I'll grant you that one, but is winning worth not getting any?" She pointed it out to him, even though she blushed a bit dramatically as she said it, unable not to visualize that at the moment.

"I always knew you were smart." Rosalie's voice was seductive and Bella couldn't stop herself from turning to look. Her eyes widened to find Rosalie's pale skin highlighted by a deep red bikini. Her hair was wet and clung to her neck, but she had a towel in her hands and was slowly working the ends of one side. The blonde vampire's stride toward Emmett was pure sex and power. Emmett got a deep kiss, and Bella struggled to look away, before she stared intently at the hot tub. Her heart was beating a bit fast and she cursed it because there was no way she'd be able to control it, or that the vampires with her wouldn't hear it.

"Done with dinner?" Rosalie asked her and Bella nodded, before the blonde took her plate away. Rosalie was perfect, all over perfect, and Bella's eyes went wide when she saw the back of her. A large hand obstructed her vision and that helped Bella be able to blink, before she turned to see a small amused grin on Emmett's face, but he didn't say anything. In that moment, she could have declared her love of him again, for not embarrassing her, but then she'd have admitted out loud what she was doing and Rosalie would know.

"Will the hot tub make my scent harder to deal with?" Bella asked without turning to watch Rosalie. She wasn't sure when she'd be able to look at Rose again for a little while without being distracted.

"Not really, not enough to matter." Emmett told her, but he smirked at her and Bella felt self-conscious about what her scent was telling anyone in the area about her now. Bella sighed heavily at that and at the proof she hadn't needed cold showers after pe all month. "What's wrong, did you want us to bite you?"

"No," She shook her head at that crazy thought. "I just have been taking miserably cold showers after PE to make it easier on you guys and it did nothing. I hate cold showers."

"That's so sweet of you. " Rosalie said as she rested a hand on Bella's shoulder. Bella hadn't felt Rosalie come up behind her. "But Emmett's right, the difference is so little that it just isn't worth your effort."

"Noted, no more cold showers for me." Bella muttered and then realized what she'd said when Emmett chuckled. "Ass." She muttered and he stood up and turned, to wiggle his ass at her.

"Let's get in the hot tub." Rosalie squeezed her shoulders gently before backing up so Bella could stand up.

"Sounds good." Bella was proud when she managed to not stare, it was hard, but she kept her eyes under control as she followed her vampires to the hot tub.

"Hot tubs are nice once in a while. It's so warm." Rosalie spoke and it was so longing, her words. "It makes us warm too, we aren't normally warm."

"I like the cold." Bella spoke up before thinking, wanting to reassure her. Rosalie stopped and turned and Bella didn't have to struggle to not look down. Rosalie's eyes were so expressive, and so affectionate. Even Emmett gave her a strange grateful look.

"You are so sweet." Rose spoke softly. Rosalie took her arm gently, much like Alice did at school. There was so much of that cool skin to feel as they made their way to the hot tub and Bella didn't bother trying to talk. She wasn't sure she could say anything intelligent at the moment anyhow.

The air was slightly cool, but the warmth of the hot tub was more than enough to make up for it. Bella slid into the water somewhat slowly, enjoying the warmth cocooning her and she scooted to the left to make space for Rosalie, who sighed happily as she sunk into the water as well.

Emmett had paused to turn the music up, so Bella was already comfortably seated when he started to step into the hot tub. He sat down in the water, put his arms out around the rim of the hot tub, and therefore around Rosalie and leaned back just a little. Even with all three of them, the hot tub was not crowded. The sound of the waves weren't drowned out by the music and the place was just beautiful. This felt like a perfect moment and Bella couldn't help but think that she rarely got these moments, but that these two vampires were usually the reason for it lately.

…..

** Emmett Pov**

Bella bear was so adorably awkward ever since Emmett finished his shower, and once Rose joined them it got worse, but she was just starting to relax again. She was staring over the ocean as the sun was slowly starting to set. The cloud cover was breaking up a little, but nothing dangerous. It just left a few rays of sun to peak through, which is what had Bella's attention.

When he looked over at Rose, he saw his wife watching Bella with such a soft expression on her face. He couldn't help but smile at her. Rose noticed him and looked a little flustered for a moment at having been caught staring. He just made sure she noticed he was smiling.

"Not that I'm offering or anything Bella Bear, but would you ever want to be a vampire?" Emmett asked, and ignored the glare Rosalie gave him; he'd expected the glare to be much harsher than it was actually. "You never ask anything about being a vampire, and you already have a gift and are a bit supernatural yourself." They wanted to shake up her foundations and make her think about possibilities, and this would do that, he was pretty sure.

That had her full attention, she turned away from the sun and stared at him, her expression looked cautious and confused. "That's just it Emmett, you aren't offering. None of your family will ever offer. I know that." She sighed. "Carlisle has some sort of 'already dying' rule or something. But if I'm dying already go ahead, knock yourself out. I wouldn't say no at that moment." He wasn't sure that was what he was looking for.

"But what about if you weren't already dying, would you want it?" He asked, now more curious than ever.

"I don't even know what all it entails Emmett. That's a huge decision, nothing is more permanent than that." Bella's eyes trailed over both of them, but then she was staring out at the ocean waves. "But it doesn't matter, because I won't be given a choice." She sounded convinced that was true and Emmett didn't know if it was or not, but Emmett was a little upset in that moment, hearing her say that.

"Why are you so certain you won't get a choice Bella?" Rose asked softly and then paused. "The story, this came up in the story didn't it?" Emmett noticed Bella tensed at the mention of the story, and started to think Rosie had something there. That other Bella must have been pretty close to his family for it to come up, but he couldn't imagine any human being closer to his family than this Bella. "Who was that Bella to us?"

Bella's eyes turned to stare at them, and she looked haunted, her eyes too wide. "I don't want to talk about the story."

"For the issue of being turned to come up she had to be much more than Alice's new best friend." Rose wasn't letting it go and Bella's heart beat was getting louder, her face paler.

"Look, it does no good to," Bella started, but Rosalie was on a roll and Emmett felt a little bad for his Bella Bear, who clearly was upset with the way things were going.

"Bella, everyone wants to hear that story. It's going to come out at some point, we need that story to try and keep you safe. Your story is more reliable than Alice's visions in some ways." Rose's voice was softer, coaxing, but Bella stayed sitting very rigidly.

"I can't." Bella spoke flatly and firmly.

"Why?" There was a look in Rose's eye that told Emmett she knew something, that Bella was going to be blindsided like Emmett sometimes was when Rose saw through stories he'd told her. "Because that Bella married Edward?"

"What?" Emmett muttered in shock and turned to see if Bella laughed, if it was a joke, but Bella was as pale as they were at the moment. "Oh god."

"You said she got married, and you weren't impressed. He was a controlling bastard." Rosalie spoke softly, but Bella was frozen and unmoving. "I know my brother is controlling. We have trouble with him all the time." Rosalie's voice softened even more. "He would never give a woman the choice to become like us, he hates what we are and has very strong opinions about Heaven and Hell."

"Bella, is this true? Was she with Edward?" Emmett found the words coming out of his mouth made him a little sick. Sure Edward was alone a long time, and Esme fretted about it, but the thought of Bella with him was horrifying, even if it was a different Bella. He was always giving Emmett bad advice about relationships, he couldn't even imagine what a mess Edward would make of his own.

"I never understood what she saw in him. I didn't even like him; I thought he was bordering on abusive actually, I didn't understand her because I considered it a little scary." Bella spoke slowly, admitting it. "I thought she'd have been better off with anyone else, anyone at all, but that Bella was all about Edward."

The hot tub became very quiet and the waves became even more noticeable as even Emmett struggled to figure out what to say. "So you major cock blocked Eddie boy by showing up." He muttered and the slap to his head was a bit more substantial than Rose's normal light bat. "What, it's not the end of the world."

"I guess I did." Bella managed a weak smile. "But I don't want to tell that story." Her smile faded quickly. "I may not like him much, but he doesn't deserve to have to hear that story now, when she's gone." Bella sighed heavily. "Those things will never happen, so there isn't a point."

"But some of those things will happen Bella." Rosalie spoke firmly, softly but firmly. "Sparing his feelings isn't worth your life. Not to mention, he's never going to stop pressuring to hear the story. He's convinced you have secrets that could get us killed."

Bella looked insulted and angry when she looked up from the water at them, "Me, he thinks I'm the danger, he's the one that," Her words trailed off but her jaw was clenched. Emmett actually thought he was watching her count to ten and take deep breaths, which he didn't see humans do too often.

"He's at fault for something?" Rosalie spoke up, and there was a hint of irritation in her voice. "Why doesn't that surprise me?"

"I really think the story will cause more harm than good." Bella finally spoke up, her voice just a little deeper, more serious. "It'll hurt him, no doubt, but I think it will hurt everyone and I don't see the need."

"I think you need to share it." Rose pressed and Emmett could see Bella shaking her head.

"It will hurt everyone Rose, even you. It will hurt you." Bella's voice cracked and Emmett felt his own heart ache a little at how much the idea of hurting his Rose bothered Bella. Rose caught on to that as well, and she moved, pulling away from Emmett to tug Bella closer to her, wrapping an arm around her and holding her tight.

"Even if it hurts, I want to know what the dangers are Bella. If something happened to you I would always wonder if there was something in that story that could have stopped it, and that would hurt so much more." Emmett watched as Rose caressed Bella's hair and kissed her cheek tenderly. Bella's heart rate sped up at the contact.

"Bella Bear, we can take it. Whatever you have to share we can take it." He spoke slowly.

"Edward will not stay, he'll run. He probably won't even let me finish talking, which would make it even worse, it's the kind of story you need it all if you have some of it." Bella sounded older, tired, Emmett didn't like it. "I don't want to do it, but I can't make any decisions now, Alice is home with Edward."

"Okay, no decisions." Rosalie spoke softly and Emmett noticed she kissed Bella's cheek again, her lips lingering a little longer, and Bella's heart rate went faster still. "They will probably know the minute we get home, if Alice didn't catch it, that SHE was his mate though. That's going to make him upset and hard to live with. We won't be able to put it off for long."

Emmett moved to scoot around the hot tub in the other direction, until he was sitting on Bella's other side. He laid back and stretched his arms out with one behind both of the women in the hot tub with him. "It'll be okay Bella Bear, don't you worry."

They sat in the hot tub longer and after a while Bella shifted, "I should go to the bathroom and get something cold to drink, this is a lot of hot tub time." Bella muttered. They let her go, watching her carefully to make sure she got out of the hot tub safely.

Emmett spoke softly, "She knows seven vampires, five of them are friends she goes places with on a regular basis, and she thinks no one will ever offer. I don't like that Rose."

"This isn't the life I would have chosen." Rose spoke softly.

"But you see the life she is choosing, is it any better than what we'd offer her? Really Rose, can you say anything good about the life she's planning?" Emmett sighed heavily and leaned his head back to stare up at the stars. "She doesn't expect to find love Rose, and you already love her. How is it fair to not give her a chance at happiness? She doesn't want any of the things you regret about not being human, she doesn't want any of that. What would she miss? Does she ever talk about missing anything of her old life?"

….


	41. Chapter 41

**Bella Pov**

Bella did her best not to make the bathroom floor slippery as she used it, but her bathing suit was dripping a little. She took her time in the bathroom as she considered the mess she was in, rather than the one she was making. That story, it was going to keep coming up until they got it. Or perhaps they'd all turn into detectives, like Rosalie had, that would really suck. Even if Bella had to tell the story, she had wished there was a way to leave the Bella/Edward romance out of it. In her mind she'd tried to come up with a way to edit that out, but it wasn't really possible and now that was the only thing anyone knew.

It took effort to not try to plan what she was going to do, and part of her wanted to just call Alice and tell her to get out of the house and away from Edward in case she failed to keep control of her thoughts and made a decision. Instead Bella ran her hand through her hair a few times, straightening it out as best she could since it was wet.

When she opened the bathroom door she glanced back out at the hot tub and noticed that Rosalie and Emmett were talking and looked somewhat serious as they did it. She took in the way Emmett reached out and caressed Rosalie's hair and had to pull her eyes away. She might not be pretending not to notice they were vampires anymore, but she could pretend not to notice they were talking about something serious. Bella spent far longer than normal pondering what glass she wanted, pulling ice out of the freeze, and she spent just about as long as she could picking between the three juices that they'd bought for her. It was getting a little cold as the warmth of the hot tub started to abandon her body.

A glance out the window caught her vampires kissing softly and Emmett was then holding Rosalie tightly. Bella started to take a few sips of her juice while she stood in the kitchenette, waiting until it looked like it wasn't going to interrupt anything if she went outside.

Emmett yell out, "What are you squeezing the juice yourself?" She rolled her eyes. He could see she was done pouring just like she could see he was done holding Rosalie tightly, though the blonde vampire was nicely tucked under his arm.

Bella noticed it was even colder outside now that she'd cooled off from the hot tub. "Get in here, I can see goosebumps." Rosalie spoke up, her voice commanding and Bella was more than grateful to step back into the hot tub. She set her glass within reach and ducked down into the warm water with a happy sigh.

"You guys need to buy a hot tub." Bella told them. It made sense, they liked them, had the money and more than enough space at their house.

"We did." Rosalie nibbled on her lower lip. Bella found her eyes traveling to Rose's lips without her permission, that little nibble on lip move was new, "It broke." Emmett chuckled and Bella blushed a little as she caught on to what they were doing when they broke it.

"Shame." Bella muttered and then stared out over the dark ocean, as she struggled to not imagine how it might have broken. "Even when I can't really see it the ocean is beautiful." Bella said as she took in the darkness with the highlights of reflected light.

"I know. Someday we should take you to Isle Esme, it's a place Carlisle bought for Esme. It's a tropical island, and the only beach I can lay out on in the sun." Rosalie told her and Bella smiled at the thought. It had sounded beautiful in the books, and the thought of seeing Rose in the sun was very tempting. If it made Edward look beautiful in the books, it would be a religious experience with Rosalie.

"I'd be up for that." She turned back to look at her vampires and wondered at Emmett's smug little smile.

"Have you ever been to a tropical place?" Rosalie asked and Bella frowned as she considered how little she really had done in her last life.

"No, never." Bella sighed. "I never went anywhere."

"We'll fix that." Rosalie gave her a small smile with that promise.

"Truth or Dare? Anyone up for that?" Emmett asked and his smile made Bella cautious.

"I can't compete with you two." She told him quickly, but he leaned forward.

"I think we can keep the dares to something you can do too. Come on, it's dark and we're in a hot tub. Doesn't that give you any ideas?" His teasing was far too sexual and Bella blushed.

"Emmett!" Rosalie's tone was scolding and commanding. Bella knew there was more said, but it was so fast and so quiet she didn't catch any of it. What she did get was that Emmett was in trouble, and that somehow, based on Rose's body language, she felt guilty about it. Bella felt awkward even being in the hot tub as the quiet conversation went on for what felt like a while, but could probably be timed to less than a minute. Bella decided in that less than a minute that she might try and go to bed early if it looked like Emmett and Rosalie needed time to talk for much longer.

"So, you have any more of those Anita Blake books?" Rosalie spoke while leaning back, making an apparent effort to relax again.

"No, you guys have read everything I have." Bella shook her head. "She'll write more, she never stops, but we have to wait for them now."

"Alice told us it was the zombies and the werecreatures you focused on, but you were just pretending not to notice the vampires in the stories, weren't you?" Rosalie asked her.

"Really, you pretended to not even notice fictional vampires?" Emmett asked before Bella could answer.

"It seemed safer to seem oblivious than appear to have an unhealthy obsession with vampires. Oblivious gets a few odd looks, but if I acted like I read those books all the time it would make you all a nervous wreck." Bella explained. "I read some vampire stories, I don't hunt them all down, and I read a lot of other things, but I do read them."

"They are full of bullshit." Emmett pointed out.

"Sure, but even full of bullshit, you can't say Anita Blake was boring." Bella grinned, she knew they'd all been reading her books. She'd caught them all at different times, even Esme had one of the books in her car when she came to get Bella for their trip to the Home Show last weekend.

"You told Alice you liked the succubus aspect." Rosalie spoke up. "Did you know succubi are real? They are female vampires with a slight variation in their makeup."

"Really?" Bella was a bit surprised, this hadn't really come up in the books at all.

"We have family of a sort, and three of them are succubi." Rosalie told her and Emmett was just stretching out and listening. "It's so rare, but they were all turned by the same woman, and it's something passed down by females. It takes an inclination towards that in the human being turned, and in the vampire turning them, so I'd guess there are less than twenty succubi in the world today, because the odds aren't favoring that at all. I only know about the three for sure."

"And yes, what you assume about succubi are right." Emmett smirked. "They got to have it."

"That's pretty interesting, but why are you telling me?" Bella asked them both.

"You said you didn't know what being a vampire meant." Rosalie spoke slowly, it looked a bit painful for her actually. "You should at least know. After knowing vampires exist, there is no point in hiding the details." Rosalie told her and shared a look with Emmett as she did it. "It isn't a life for everyone, there are drawbacks that I never would have agreed to if I'd had a choice, but Emmett reminded me that what I saw as the biggest drawbacks aren't things you are even concerned about."

"Are you offering?" Bella was stunned and she couldn't imagine how different this was then she'd expected. In the story, that Bella never got Rosalie's blessing, but then that girl never even asked a single hard question, and never got any answers. How could she make a decision when Edward worked so hard to keep her ignorant? Edward even managed to keep this Bella ignorant of so much, because they never talked about anything really, truly, important like this.

Rosalie sighed. "I can't say I'd do it if you asked. I don't know if I could. It's so hard for me Bella, so very hard to imagine doing that to someone who isn't dying, someone who has options. On top of that, I've never tasted human blood, I don't know if that helps or hurts my ability to turn anyone. That said, I can live with telling you more of what being a vampire means, I'd be so selfish to deny you that."

"Thank you." Bella spoke softly, and tried to ignore the sting in her eyes as she also tried to control herself from moving across the hot tub to hug Rosalie. Bella had no idea if she wanted to be a vampire, it was very likely she'd decide she wouldn't want it, but Rosalie was the last vampire, other than Edward, that she thought would even offer this much.

Before it was time for her to go to bed Bella learned some interesting facts she'd never heard before. Animal drinking vampires hunted about once every other week, if they made sure to hunt well when they did it. Human drinkers could go longer, but almost never did. Human blood made them stronger, but animal blood made the Cullens more able to live like a family and to blend in a bit so they could have a house and not be nomadic. Rosalie and Emmett confirmed that the venom burned their throats when they got hungry, that it was painful when that happened, and it happened more often than Bella knew. Bella's scent was a lot stronger and better than the other humans and being around her was harder, but they still wanted her around in spite of that. They told her not to worry about it, and that it was getting easier with time. Bella learned more in a half hour conversation just about their diet and things related to it than she had in four books.

…

** Emmett Pov**

Bella was showering again, a brief rinse off before getting ready to sleep and Emmett was still sitting in the hot tub, watching Rosalie stare into the cabin, toward the closed bathroom door. "I'm not going to sleep with her tonight Emmett, I can see you thinking about it." He wasn't sure how she 'saw' that when she wasn't looking away from the bathroom. "Small steps, time for you to change your mind." Rosalie looked over at him and he didn't like the pain in her eyes.

"I won't change my mind Rose. It really is okay. I want you to have her. It'll take up some of our time, and things may change, but we're strong Rose. Our marriage is really strong and I think we can do this." He smiled at her, the most charming smile he could, "But I do think if this works she will have to do her fair share of playing the pack mule when you and Alice go shopping." He knew that wasn't likely at all, he was much larger than Bella, but it did surprise a light laugh out of Rose so it worked.

"She might not even be interested." Rosalie's eyes moved to the cabin windows again, and he could see the tension in her. "I'm married and she knows it Emmett. How can I explain my interest without sounding like a heartless bitch? She loves you, she won't want to hurt you. If she didn't have a problem with it she wouldn't be the woman I think she is."

"If you want I could ask her to date my wife, would that make it easier?" Emmett offered, but he knew he'd have a hard time making Bella believe he wasn't joking if he had to do it.

"No, no," Rosalie sighed heavily. "But I'm sure you'll need to talk to her at some point, I don't want her to think I'm some faithless floozy." Rosalie looked over at him and he could see some determination growing in her eyes. "I'm going to start out really slow with her, I won't even call it dating . I'm going to get to know her in a new way, consider her for more, to make sure this is going to work, because Emmett, this could turn into a disaster if we don't do it right. We could hurt her so badly." Her voice grew quieter. "We could lose her." He could hear the pain that thought gave Rose in the shakiness of her voice and he moved to slid up next to her and wrapped an arm around her. "I'm such a bad wife, you deserve better."

"No, Rosie, you're perfect. Perfect for me and perfect for her." Emmett reassured her again. She'd said this before, earlier tonight. "I'm the one that brought it up Rose, you can't feel guilty when I'm the one that wants to share. I know you will both be happier and that makes me happier. I love her too, you know."

"If you ever plan to change your mind, you need to say it now Emmett." Rosalie spoke softly, her hand gripping his arm. "Because I'm not going to turn her into a little trick on the side that I can drop as soon as you think it isn't fun anymore. Did you even think about that? Once she's in, Emmett, she's there to stay, whether it's for her human life or for longer still. If it works out, if she accepts and it works, you won't have me to yourself anymore, ever."

Rosalie's warning was more than enough of a hint that his Rose was already in love with his Bella Bear. Rose was seeing a long future here. Emmett sighed and leaned down to kiss her forehead softly. He hadn't thought of it in those terms, but he hadn't considered this an experiment either. "When she's yours, when she can finally show you how she feels and she's yours in every way you'd want her, if she ever wanted me would you let her?" He stared into Rose's confused eyes. "Would you deny her anything?" He could see he wasn't clear enough, because Rose still looked lost as to what he was saying. "How could I deny you anything? Loving a woman is different Rose, and I guess you'll see that now. It is so hard to deny the woman you love anything. There may be times when this is inconvenient, and I know some people will think I'm an idiot, a pushover, not a real man, especially when they realize I don't have 'two' women, but that I'm sharing my one. It may be hard at times, but Rosie, I don't think I'll ever regret it. Not as long you both are happy." He caressed her hair and kissed her lips softly. "Get over your guilt Rosie and get to happy. I don't want your guilt."

"You are so good to me, but you have to be sure Emmett, you have to positive." Rosalie pleaded with him and he nodded that he understood and he was. "I'm going to go slow, and I'm going to tell you when it's too late for you to change your mind. If it happens, if you change your mind you have to do it before I tell you it's too late."

"Okay, I promise." He saw nothing less would work to reassure her. He smiled just a little. "So what makes it too late? Making love?"

"I'm not sure I'll be capable of making love to her Emmett, and I'll not rush something that could be too dangerous. No, it will be too late when I can't imagine living without her, that will be too late Emmett." Rosalie told him, her voice deeper and more determined than she'd sounded earlier. Emmett didn't bother making bets as to how long he had to make up his mind now, because he thought he'd have a month or two at most, even with her determined to go slow with Bella, so slow Bella wouldn't even notice it at first.

If anyone could keep it slow it would be Rosalie. Her self control was amazing, and it was because of that he thought it would work. It would all work.


	42. Chapter 42

**Bella Pov**

If she wasn't taking the pill, it rarely failed that Bella woke up in the middle of the night. Either it was nightmares, or a need for the bathroom. This time it was both. Her heart pounded as her eyes flew opened. When she took a shaky breath and started to pull the covers off of her, she finally remembered she wasn't in her bedroom. The room she was in was different and dark. Bella carefully made her way toward the door, which she could only identify the location of because of the small shaft of light coming from under it.

Once the door was opened and she could look back at the room she remembered that this was what it looked like. It was a nice, almost romantic, bedroom that faced out to the beach. With that memory intact and her body and mind both now awake, Bella crossed the small hallway to go to the bathroom.

Once that was done and Bella took a few deep breaths while wiping the sweat off of her face with a washcloth, she knew she'd have to attempt to sleep again. It wasn't something she was looking forward to, because once the nightmares started for the night they didn't let up. It probably had something to do with how she obsessed about them, and hoped they wouldn't be back, but it was a hard cycle to break.

She couldn't hear anyone else in the cabin, and she wondered where her vampires were, even as she opened the bathroom door. Her eyes traveled to the window and the last place she'd seen them on instinct, and Bella's eyes widened and her body stopped moving as she found her vampires were still in the hot tub.

Emmett was leaning against the wall of the hot tub, his arms spread out like normal along the edge, his head tilted back. It was a pose he'd used a few times in the tub when she was there, but what made it shocking was that Rosalie was in his lap, facing him and her body was moving in a steady motion that told Bella that while it might just look intimate above the water, they were having sex. A shudder ran through Rosalie's body and she arched down hard, before her head pulled back to face the sky and Bella felt her heart pounding and an answering pounding resonated lower on her body.

Leaving the bathroom door opened, leaving the bathroom light on, Bella moved across the hall and into her bedroom quickly once she'd regained enough mental control to know that standing there watching was bad. It took so much willpower to stop watching, and more willpower than she had to not replay it in her mind. She hadn't seen anything new, Rosalie still had her top on and Emmett hadn't been wearing a shirt for hours, but even if they'd been fully dressed for winter, moving their bodies like that was enough to make it more than anyone else should see.

Bella's nightmare was completely forgotten, and she had trouble falling back to sleep for a new reason, but when she did she didn't have any new nightmares. Instead her dreams were a little too pleasant.

It was daylight when she opened her eyes again, and Bella was a bit surprised that she'd managed to sleep through the night. A blush came to her face as she remembered why she had trouble falling asleep the second time.

She was starting to get out of bed when there was a soft knock on the bedroom door. "Room service." Rosalie's voice traveled through the door, with a hint of humor to it.

Bella felt flustered and nervous for a moment, the vision of what she'd seen last night filling her mind. "Just a minute." Bella muttered as she took a deep breath and did her best to banish those thoughts, while straightening the bed up around her as if that was why she needed that moment. "Come in."

Rosalie came in with a tray, and from the bed Bella could see a glass of orange juice was on it, but she noticed the pancakes and sausage when the tray was lowered over her legs. "Breakfast in bed." Rosalie smiled and then moved to sit at the end of the bed.

"Thank you." Bella stammered as she looked at the tray, it had a flower on it even. It was beautiful and smelled great. Bella felt a little awkward, but she started to cut up her pancakes. "I haven't had breakfast in bed before." When she was a little kid and home sick from school didn't really count.

"Oh, you just made sure you'll have this again." Rosalie told her and Bella looked up to see the blonde vampire giving her a small smile that brought a light blush to Bella's cheeks.

"So, what's the plan for today?" Bella asked before putting some of her breakfast into her mouth. Rosalie seemed to relax when Bella didn't spit it out with disgust, the poor vampire wasn't very confident in her cooking. She always waited for the spit out.

"Well, Emmett wants to make more sand art," Rosalie rolled her eyes, but she was grinning. "And we could just lay out on the beach and see if you can still burn when it's overcast." Rose teased Bella and Bella was busy chewing and couldn't defend herself, it made her grin even with a mouthful. "Play in the ocean, see if you'll go further than your knees." Rose chided her. "And once you're all cold we can get back in the hot tub."

Bella blushed at the mention of the hot tub, she didn't mean to, but it happened and Rosalie gave her an odd look. "So you two didn't break it last night?" Bella teased weakly, knowing they'd broken hot tubs before. It was better than admitting what she'd seen, especially to Rose herself.

"No, it still holds water." Rosalie wasn't even embarrassed. That didn't seem fair to Bella, who was.

….

** Jasper Pov**

"So, darlin' are you going to tell me why we can't go home yet?" Jasper asked Alice as they sat beside the side of a creek, deep in the forest. They'd taken the chance to go hunting last night, since next weekend they'd have Bella and wouldn't be able to. At one point last night, Alice had pulled away from her meal before finishing it, stuck in a vision that had her unusually quiet for a while. She still hadn't told him what she'd seen, but it had to be the reason she was trying to convince him that they should just stay out here, even though neither of them could eat another drop.

"A lot of decisions are being made on Rose's little trip with Bella." Alice told him, her eyes watching the fish that were making their way through that creek. "I don't want to be the one to break the news for once. I want Rosalie and Emmett to get to the house first." He sighed, knowing that they'd be stuck in the forest for hours in that case, all because Edward's powers would make it impossible to go home and not break whatever news existed.

"So, she decide to tell that story then?" Jasper asked.

"She's trying to not decide. It's frustratingly clear how she managed to keep me in the dark before. She even told Rose that she wasn't making decisions right now." Alice sighed heavily, "But one thing that I doubt will go over well is that the Bella that doesn't exist, she wasn't just my friend. Bella admitted that girl married Edward."

"Oh dear," Jasper muttered, imagining the storm that could cause. "That's a good reason to stay away for a little while."

"Oh, it gets better." Alice turned to face him. "Edward is trying to convince himself that this Bella and that one are the same person so he won't have to believe in reincarnation, and I'm sure that's going to make it even more complicated. On top of that Rosalie and Emmett have just decided that they will attempt to make our Bella Rosalie's new mate." She looked a little irritated and he could feel that coming off of her. "Rose is planning a slow seduction so that they don't scare Bella away."

"So they are really going to act on it?" Jasper found he was a little surprised even though he'd felt more than enough to know this could happen. He finally told her, his expression more serious. "Rosalie's been slowly falling for Bella since before Bella moved here. It started with the phone calls and the video games Alice. Her emotions have been so confused, that I've felt bad for her."

"I know." Alice sighed heavily. "And I'll support them when everyone finds out their big plan. I'll even warn them if they are messing it up, because I'd like for Bella to be a member of our family, but this is going to be a rough ride." Alice tugged on her hair and he could feel her frustration. "I wish Bella would just decide on telling that story so I could see what will happen! Or that Rosalie would just decide to tell Bella she wants her! Everyone is holding everything so close to their chest and it's making me crazy, I can't see enough this way!"

Jasper sent out a wave of calm and followed it up with a hug. Alice always got so tense when her visions weren't doing what she wanted them to.

They managed to stay away from the house all day, and into the night. Alice had them meet up with Emmett and Rosalie at Bella's house when they dropped the human off. Jasper could feel the longing in Rosalie had grown with Emmett's permission, but he also could tell that Bella hadn't a clue what her friends were thinking just yet.

He sat in the backseat of the car as they pulled away from Bella's house. Alice spoke up first, as the other two were strangely quiet at the moment. "Well, I hope you've considered that we're marching into the house to tell Edward that he lost his chance at Bella for a mate, but you're planning to have two mates out of the deal." Alice was direct and Jasper felt a hint of pain coming from Rosalie at the words. "If we want him to stay long enough to hear her story, we'll have to spin this carefully. I got the impression she thought the story was important and we'd need to hear it all, didn't you?"

"Yeah, it seems like the story can be misinterpreted if it isn't complete." Rosalie managed to say.

"I hope you are successful in your current quest." Jasper spoke softly to the blonde vampire. It helped to ease that knot of pain in her.

"I do too." Alice took his hint. "I think it would be wonderful to have her as a part of the family, and since she's determined Edward isn't an option, it's nice to know someone can step up." That knot of pain in Rosalie eased a bit more. "I'm sure Edward will have a few impolite things to say about it, but keep in mind his Bella died and our Bella didn't. He doesn't know it yet, but I think he has the right to be upset. Doesn't mean he's right. You aren't a slut and no one in the family would really think that of you."

Jasper watched Rosalie stare into the rearview mirror at Alice. "I do love my husband Alice."

"No one who ever met the two of you would doubt that." Alice spoke gently.

"It is kinda hard to miss Rosie." Emmett smiled at her and Jasper felt that knot of pain, of apprehensions start to dissolve even more. Even though Rosalie acted like she didn't care what other people thought of her, she was clearly caring now.

This was really out of the box, the type of relationship Emmett and Rosalie were planning was unusual in most circles. Jasper had seen trios before, in the newborn wars it even made sense to have more than one lover, because you'd often lose at least one of them. In a life without war though, he'd seen a few humans over the years, but still very rare. They were subtle, they blended in with various lies, but their emotions ratted them out and he knew. The Cullens never stayed anywhere long though, so he never got to see the evolution of such relationships. He knew it wasn't something he could say just yet, but it was a little exciting for an empath to get to see one developing. He also hoped that they managed to get what they were after, because it was going to be an interesting ride.

As they pulled up to the house, the feelings of determination and apprehension grew in the car. Jasper sat straighter as he waited for the car to stop. Having been in war for most of his existence he didn't miss that the way they all filed into the house was reminiscent of walking into a hostile territory.

"Family meeting." Jasper called out as they got into the main room. It was best to get as much help in this situation as possible and everyone was trying to control their thoughts until they were at least all around the table.

"Did she tell you the story?" Carlisle asked as he came into the room.

"She's considering it." Rosalie said even as she was sitting down. Jasper remained standing for now, and he watched as Esme filed in and Edward behind her. Normally Jasper would sit beside Alice, but he moved to sit on her other side so that he was near Edward. Edward gave him an odd look, and Carlisle took the seat on Edward's other side. "She has a lot of reservations though. Apparently it will be difficult for us to hear. She's concerned about hurting us."

"Oh," Esme made a soft cooing noise. "Poor Bella, always trying to protect us."

"We did learn one thing." Rosalie continued and Jasper felt the shock start to hit Edward as he caught someone's thoughts. "That other Bella, the one she knows the story of, she was mated to Edward." Jasper noted how Rosalie stressed the fact that it was the 'other' Bella. It had to be hard for her to even say this.

Shock, dismay, and pain went through the other three who hadn't known about this yet. Jasper expected that and he knew that the brief flair of hope was the real problem, because it came from Edward. "So she's my mate? Is that why I can't read her? That would be perfect."

"No," Rosalie growled. "The missing Bella was to be your mate. This Bella is not."

"They are one and the same." Edward pushed, "She's confused, but if she's meant to be mine in that future she saw then maybe it can still be."

"One big problem Edward." Alice spoke up. "Bella's a lesbian. I think that alone will keep this one from being with you."

That might have worked if Edward's eyes didn't immediately move to Emmett. "Emmett doesn't believe she's only attracted to women." His face screwed up in disgust. "How you could treat any woman that way is repugnant, but you will not be spending time alone with her again."

"You don't dictate how we interact with Bella. You've said no more than a paragraph to her in all this time. We spend lots of time with her, and no delusions of yours will dictate our relationships with her." Rosalie growled at the end of her comment and Jasper felt the frustration and anger growing around the table, as well as the confusion from Esme and Carlisle, who didn't know that Bella held a very special place in Rosalie's heart.

Perhaps it was Jasper's fault, or perhaps someone else had thought something about it, but Edward's anger grew exponentially. "I really thought you would attempt to rein your perverse desires in Rosalie, but apparently you are incapable of even that much. Really, you really plan to take my mate from me in this way? You had a mate mere years after you were turned and I've been waiting for almost a century and now that she's here you're planning to seduce her away from me?" There was a dose of shock from Esme and Carlisle at that moment.

"Rosalie is truly in love." Jasper defended her quietly. "With two people, but it is hardly the first time I've seen that happen."

"Rosalie only loves herself. A decent woman like Bella wouldn't fall for a married woman, that's a disgrace." Edward used his words like a sword, but they were weak because Jasper was the one that knew emotions and Edward never understood those at all.

"Eddie boy, even if my Rose stepped down, not that I think she should at all, Bella hates you. That story she doesn't want to tell us, the only hints and tips we get make you look bad. It's not a surprise, you have no clue how to treat a woman so apparently you screwed it up in that 'story'." Emmett's anger was bottled but it wouldn't take much if Edward kept insulting Rosalie. Jasper pushed calm out a little too strongly on purpose and watched everyone's tense muscles start to relax.

"Edward," Esme spoke softly, her emotions a bit regretful. "This Bella won't be interested in you. You'll find your real mate someday, and maybe she'll have some ideas to help you, but our Bella," Esme shook her head, "I'm sorry Edward, but she's afraid of you. She's put locks on her window to keep you out specifically. It's not a surprise, she knows she's your singer and our Bella is a cautious one."

"She's afraid of me." Edward slumped down in his chair, repeating those words almost soft enough to be just to himself. "Of course she is, but if she's afraid of me why is she okay with all of you? We're all monsters."

"She's your singer, it's the reason she gave me. She thought that other than the nomads she knows are coming, you were the only threat." Rosalie told him. "She doesn't see the rest of us as a danger, even though she works hard to make sure she isn't smelling her best around us. She cracks windows when she blushes in cars, and the poor thing thought cold showers would help; she's been freezing herself after school when we visit her. She was a bit irritated to find out it wouldn't help." Jasper felt the fondness, and affection as Rosalie spoke of Bella. It was either her thoughts or his reading of her emotions that had Edward giving Rose a very deadly glare.

Carlisle spoke up. "So she is willing to share her story?" He was trying to control the conversation and Jasper agreed with him. Talk about Bella's potential love life wasn't going to go well at all and was pointless really. The only one able to make decisions about that was Bella herself.

"She doesn't want to make a decision that will allow me to see it." Alice sighed. "It's a little frustrating that she came to us knowing how to get around my powers. Bella won't share anything until she's ready."

"She is convinced that if she tells some of it she has to tell it all, so we have that going for us." Rosalie turned a dark look to Edward. "She's also convinced that if she starts to tell it Edward will try and run away before hearing it all and that it would be a problem to not hear the entire story, so if she decides not to share, it would be because she doesn't trust him to stay if he says he'll stay." Her eyes darkened. "She's also hinted that Edward did something in that story to endanger us, so I'm inclined to force him to stay for the entire story so that we all know what to watch out for."

Jasper sighed as the brief calming of emotions took off again into anger and now distrust.

….


	43. Chapter 43

**Bella Pov**

"So, are you going to tell us the story?" Alice finally just asked as they sat in their first class.

"I don't know." Bella told her and watched with a little surprise as Alice scowled at her.

"You know, I really don't like how you stay indecisive just to trick me." Alice let out a huff of air. "I know you like to plan things out, but you never do that when I want you to."

"I'm not trying to trick you." Bella spoke more gently, and with a bit of concern. Alice was rarely grumpy with her, in fact this could be the first time. "But if I tell the story, or plan to, well, it isn't just you that finds out. I can't let him run Alice, if he does that he could cause some trouble. I've 'seen' it before." Bella had to finally hint to the issue. Bella still wasn't sure how to work around that problem. If she decided to talk she'd need to take some time to organize her thoughts and try and remember as much of that story as she could. The Cullens thought she heard the story last summer, but honestly it had been a bit longer. Only the way people constantly used to bring it up around her kept it somewhat fresh in her mind.

"Speaking of Edward." Alice sighed heavily. "I had hoped he'd get over it, but he doesn't believe in reincarnation Bella. Even with the evidence in front of us he is convinced you are THAT Bella, and that the 'episode' of precognition had side effects and you, well,"

Bella frowned and turned to face Alice, rather than to walk into their classroom. "You can't be serious?" Her eyes widened as Alice nodded. That Bella, she really didn't want anyone thinking she was that Bella.

"I wish you'd make up your mind so I could tell you if what you say will cause more problems. Last night seemed to last forever Bella. He heard that the story had him paired with someone finally, and he's a bit touchy. It's a bit understandable, don't you think?"

Alice slipped into the classroom and Bella just stood there for a moment longer, her heart sinking as she realized that she didn't really have a choice in talking now, not if she wanted Edward to understand. Bella needed to plan out how to do this, she needed to take some time and really plan it and yet she had Alice to think about.

Bella mulled over that all morning, and when she got to Art class with Alice again, she asked. "How do I get time to plan something when I can't let Edward read your mind and get the story first? It's an old story to me now and I'd need to put notes together to try and recreate it a bit, to try and not forget something important. The minute I decide to work on my outline you'll know everything, won't you?"

Alice stopped drawing and studied Bella. "This is supposed to be my weekend with you. I had some plans but if you need that time to do something else I could always just stay overnight at your house. I'd want another weekend though, because I'd be losing mine with you while you write out notes, and I don't really think that's fair. We can work out how to deal with your making a decision for your planning, but Bella I've also got the problem of being there when you tell us all. I'd have to not be there if you really need him to be surprised. Do you really need that Bella?"

"I don't know. If I made a decision could you tell me?" Bella noticed the teacher glancing at them and started to draw again to keep on her good side.

"I probably could." Alice took up her pencil as well.

Bella managed to not make a decision for almost the entire week. It helped that she could focus on her new job, the rush to finish up her portfolio for art class, and preparing for finals.

She did notice Edward was around more at school, his path took him near her more often, and she did her best to ignore his searching looks. Rosalie was with her at lunch every day, and she walked Bella to a few more of her classes, so the protective custody had been stepped up a little. It wasn't as reassuring as it could be, but Bella said nothing about it.

It was Friday night that Alice was going to stay over. Charlie was going to be working late, and he'd actually been pleased that Bella wouldn't be alone for the night. Alice missed school that day and Rosalie told her Alice had called and would be at her house. Apparently Bella had made a decision before she meant to and Alice was staying away from Edward for the day to help keep it quiet. It had been a hard day to focus on school, but since next week was the last week of school she wasn't the only one not able to concentrate.

With nothing else left to lose and her inability to think of anything else, Bella opened up her notebook and started taking brief notes on the first book during classes. As she took notes she knew she was missing a lot of the story, because she was able to take her notes on a few pages, not an entire notebook. Bella edited and added as she went, trying to focus on the order of things and she became frustrated with herself as her memory was less than she'd like. It wasn't going to be in a format that would entertain, but hopefully that was better. Maybe if she remembered too much it would seem too much like a real book to the Cullens and they might start to ask questions.

"Would you like a ride home?" Rosalie asked her during lunch and Bella looked up from her notebook, where she'd just started an outline of New Moon.

"That would be nice." She smiled at Rose. "Thanks."

"No problem, any time you don't feel like using the bus just let me know." Rosalie sat down across from her at the table. "What are you working on? Do you have a big paper due?"

Bella glanced around the library to see that the few other people there weren't nearby. "I'm collecting my thoughts and taking notes on that 'story'." She admitted and watched Rosalie's eyes move back to stare at the notebook with caution now. "My memory isn't as good as I'd hoped and I'm trying to remember as much as I can, but I'm sure something will be left out." Bella paused and gave Rosalie a searching look. "I realized something this morning. This story affects your 'cousins' as well. I hadn't really realized it, but I think they need to be a part of all of this."

"Oh," Rosalie spoke quietly. "We haven't told them much about you at all. Other than whatever Edward might have let slip. Is there a way around telling them? I don't like the idea of so many vampires knowing what you are."

"They are family, right?" Bella asked, wondering at why Rose was so reluctant.

The blonde vampire gave her a weak smile. "I guess I don't want to share any more than I have too. If Tanya and the others come here, well," Her words trailed off. It seemed off to Bella, she was sure she wasn't a magnet for vampires but Rosalie was acting like she might be.

It was tempting to let it go at that, especially since Bella didn't know much about the Denalis at all, but they'd paid the heaviest price in these books. "Rose," Bella leaned in and whispered. "They'll need the whole story. Irina needs to know it all, so she can avoid," Bella's voice trailed off. How could she tell anyone about this if she couldn't even get it out with just Rose. Bella gave Rose a helpless look and the blonde vampire rested a hand over hers.

Rosalie's phone rang and Rose answered it. "What, are you sure?" Rosalie gave Bella a measuring look. "Bella, why do you want Irina there? Alice says you aren't committed to telling us yet."

Bella took a deep breath and forced herself to say it. "Irina died in the story." Rosalie's eyes widened and her expression went from shocked to pained.

"Did you get that?" Rosalie said after slowly putting the phone back to her ear. "Yes, I think that's a good idea." Bella wasn't hearing the other side of the conversation, but Rosalie spoke softly and slowly after hanging up. "Alice will help make sure the Denali's are part of this somehow. She said she might be late coming to your house today as she sets things up."

"I'm sure Irina's death can be avoided. There were so many things that went wrong." Bella spoke quietly, upset that she'd even forgotten that the Cullens had lost family in that final confrontation until she'd outlined how Laurent went to Denali in the Twilight book.

"The more I learn about what happened with "her" the more relieved I am that we have you instead." Rosalie spoke slowly, her eyes moving around the room rather than looking straight at her for a moment. Bella had the sense that there would be some tears if Rosalie could shed them.

"I hope you still feel that way after I tell the story Rose." Bella whispered and focused on her closed notebook. She, at least, could shed a few tears and she nearly did.

"I can't imagine ever not wanting it to be you with us." Rosalie spoke so softly, so tenderly, and Bella grasped her hand and held it tight.

Bella returned home after school and spent all Friday night typing. Some time around the end of the last bit of the story, as Bella was writing about the confrontation with the Volturi that had happened, and Irina's death, Alice slipped into her bedroom. "How?"

"Your father's bedroom window." Alice told her softly and Bella grimaced at the proof it was easy to sneak into her house. Alice slipped across the room and sat down heavily on the bed and stared at Bella. "I think I need to be there with you." Alice sighed heavily. "And yes, some of my thoughts might leak out, but I want to be there for you when you share this story. I want you to know someone right there knows what you are doing and what you are going through and is there for you." Alice leaned forward. "I've had to give bad news quite a bit in my life Bella and I know it hurts to do that to the people you love and I'll support you."

Bella felt like her throat was tightening up, and her eyes were watery. She just opened her arms and the small vampire moved to hug her tightly. "I don't want to hurt them." She muttered into Alice's shirt.

"We all know that Bella, we know it." Alice's breath moved through Bella's hair. "And it will be okay. It will hurt, I won't lie, but it will be okay." Alice whispered even softer, "I'll never leave you like that Bella, never. I'm ashamed that my brother pushed us to do that to her, that I did that to her, but I'll never do that to you." Alice knew some of the story, and those words made it obvious. Bella nodded that she understood, that she believed and then just relaxed into Alice's hug.

…

**Jasper Pov**

"She'll be here soon." Rosalie spoke into the phone as she moved to set it on the table, switching it to speaker. "Bella is really nervous about doing this. It isn't easy for her." Jasper could feel the protectiveness oozing out of Rosalie as she warned the Denali's on the other side of the phone. "It was her idea that you should be included from the beginning."

"That's nice to know." Tanya's voice spoke up, even as Rosalie was plugging the phone into the charger to keep this connection going for as long as it took. "From what Alice told us, she seems to be rather unusual."

"That's our Bella Bear, a surprise a minute." Emmett spoke up as he moved behind Rose and held her to him. Jasper was still waiting for his own mate, who was driving Bella over. The irritation coming from upstairs was ignored, as Jasper had been ignoring it all week whenever Rose talked about Bella.

"Maybe all of you could visit sometime this summer and meet her." Esme offered as she slipped into the room with snacks for Bella, which she put out on the dining table they were all going to be sitting around. It wasn't hard to sense Rosalie's irritation with the invitation and Jasper smiled just a little. Jealousy, finally one of the three was showing some jealousy and it was from the idea of Bella meeting their very single, very succubus, cousins.

"We'll consider it." Tanya managed politely, but they really didn't know how the Denali's felt about a pseudo-human knowing too much. Bella was technically human, but her situation was so odd it was actually more of a grey area, as far as Jasper was concerned. He felt that point could even be argued with the Volturi if it became necessary, not that he had any idea if they'd win that point.

The scent of the forest filled the house, as every window that could open on the main floor was opened. The weather was warm, and a little sunny at times, so it should be comfortable for Bella and it would help keep her scent down a bit for Edward. This was going to be the longest he'd ever been in direct contact with her and they were being cautious.

He could hear the car pulling up and moved to take a seat at the table as they waited. Carlisle filed in with Edward as well. One head of the table sat empty, reserved for Bella, with the phone in front of her to catch her story and to give the Denali's the ability to ask questions of Bella directly.

Alice was gently pulling a reluctant Bella into the house and Jasper sent Bella a small dose of calm to help her. He took in the way Bella held on tight to a binder in her hand, or that she swallowed hard and took small steps toward the dining table, slow steps.

"We have the Denali's on speaker phone." Rosalie warned them and Jasper felt apprehension from Bella.

"It's nice to see you again Bella." Edward spoke slowly, staying in his chair as they'd all agreed he would do. He wouldn't make sudden movements and he would stay for the entire story, no matter how hard it was. He'd agreed easily to that, and Jasper knew it would be harder for Edward to keep that promise than Edward realized just yet. Bella wasn't prone to overreacting like Edward appeared to think she was doing. It would be a hard story if she said it was.

"Hey Edward." Bella stared him in the eyes for a moment, and it was a flat, cautious tone that matched her emotions perfectly. Alice guided Bella to the other side of the table from Edward and into the chair at that head of the table.

"Okay, now that we've got our body snatcher here, let's get this party started." Emmett teased.

"Hello Bella, I'm Tanya of the Denali coven. We have all of us here like you requested." Tanya spoke and Bella finally looked at the phone. She stared at it actually and Jasper felt some odd determination as she took in the face of the phone, which showed the open connection.

"Hello Denali's." Bella spoke and there was a hint of confidence in her voice, and her back sat straighter. The human seemed to sit like a business woman at the moment. "The story affects your family even though you aren't around for most of it. I want you to keep that in mind if you start to get bored or wonder why you're part of this." Bella felt some hesitation. "Irina?"

"Yes Bella?" Another Denali spoke up.

"Please don't wander off." Bella asked softly. He felt some sympathy and wondered at it. The way Alice and Rosalie mirrored Bella's emotions told him there was something those three hadn't shared with the rest of them yet.

"I believe I can manage that." Irina sounded puzzled, but without them being nearby Jasper's powers weren't going to help that part of the family through this.

Bella's eyes rose from the phone to take in the rest of them sitting around the table. "I guess I better start with the disclaimer. I've tried to remember as much as I can, but I don't have a memory like all of you. I took notes to try and put the story in order, and I'll do the best I can." There was a sense of concern from a few of them, including Bella herself. "Also, this is what would have happened, not what will happen. I take it as a warning to watch out, but not a 'prediction'. Things are already so different, and I'm not that naive little girl." Edward sent out doubt and irritation, but he said nothing out loud, thankfully. Bella was approaching this as professionally as she could, and Jasper suspected it was to help her deal with her emotions. He'd help her as much as he could as well. "Ground rules, we take this in order and we do it all in one day. Half of the story is more dangerous than none at all, so everyone stays for it all or they get none of it. I'll answer questions and I'll give my opinions of things that happened in the story if they are needed. Will that work?"

"We can do that." Tanya spoke up.

Bella's eyes moved to Edward. "It will be hard. You are the one that wanted this, but it's going to hurt Edward. If you can't stay I'll just stop here."

"I can do it." Edward felt some amusement, rather than any hesitation and Jasper felt like rolling his eyes.

"To me, this is the story of how that Bella and Edward managed to screw up repeatedly." Bella warned him again. "I understand her a little more now that her life is mine, but I would be ashamed if that was my story. Edward, this may be painful and humiliating." Bella clearly could see Edward didn't take her first warning seriously.

Finally he showed some hesitation, but he nodded, and Jasper nodded as well, letting Bella know she was taken seriously.

A heavy sign came from Bella and she opened the notebook in front of her. "I guess I could get started." She was feeling so many things, few of them good and Jasper started to send out calm into the room in preparation.


	44. Chapter 44

**Jasper Pov**

Bella started to speak, but her eyes were focused on her page, and Jasper felt her embarrassment, so she was hiding behind reading. "That Bella decided to move in with Charlie, her father," Bella's eyes moved to the phone and it was clear she'd be giving enough detail for the others to understand, "in the middle of her Junior year. That would be this upcoming January. After Renee, her mother, got married to Phil, well she wanted to travel with him in his job and Bella knew her mother wasn't happy sticking around for her." Bella muttered, almost under her breath, but they all could hear it. "Most likely Renee made Bella think that move was her idea. Bella hated Forks, hated the rain, and barely knew her father, so she wasn't happy with the move at all."

"At least you like it here." Emmett spoke softly, and it earned him a small smile from Bella.

"Charlie bought Bella an old truck, Billy Black's old truck, as a welcome home gift." Jasper felt the disgust coming from Rosalie. "And Bella started up school, getting involved with those kids I sat with the first day. They apparently didn't annoy her as badly as they did me, because she actually stuck with them." Bella started to blush. "She saw your parade to lunch and was intrigued. Her big thing was she noticed every little detail, I tried to pretend to be the opposite and notice nothing at all, but she could just look at your table and list off a half a dozen things other people didn't really notice."

"You seem a bit irritated." Jasper spoke up in the moment of silence.

"For all her 'super powers of observation' she had trouble deciding who was prettier, Rose or Edward. It was kind of stupid, I mean you all look good, but," Bella's blush increased and her eyes widened as she realized what she'd said. Jasper could only grin at her embarrassment. "Well, it's no contest." Bella muttered and Jasper could hear Tanya chuckling softly, even though Bella wouldn't have. "Edward was giving her odd looks because he couldn't read her mind."

"There is someone that could have blocked his powers?" Tanya asked and Jasper could feel a bit of amusement all around the table, except for Edward who was a little annoyed.

"I'm a shield, I block mental powers. That power came from her." Bella admitted.

"Impressive." Tanya muttered and there was another dose of jealousy coming from Rosalie.

"Yeah, well, not my power, just inherited it." Bella took a deep breath and a moment, before starting up again. "That Bella had biology with Edward after lunch. That was where he found out she was his singer. He had to sit through an entire class, right next to her and surrounded by all those kids. She thought he was being mean, and was claiming she smelled bad, it upset her to be picked on like that for no apparent reason."

"Oh god." Edward's eyes were wide and a sense of shock and foreboding came from everyone around the table. They had all been very careful about preparing Edward and keeping them separated, and to think of what could have happened, even if it hadn't, it was a bit horrifying. Jasper may have had a slip or two while part of this family, but the sheer scale of the slip Edward could have made was beyond anything they'd have ever dealt with before.

"It's why I took Biology early." Bella admitted quietly. "But Edward managed it, he left as soon as the bell went off, but he managed. He then took off for Denali for a few days and Bella started to feel like she'd run him off. She checked every day to see if he was back." Bella shook her head and Jasper could sense the disgust coming from her and the interest growing in Edward.

"So he glared at her, acted like she smelled, and she was 'waiting for him'?" Rosalie muttered, her voice conveying her disbelief.

"I know," Bella gave a weak grin and looked up from her papers finally. "What idiot does that? From her point of view he would seem like the school bully the way he acted. She had no idea how well he'd actually done leaving her alive." Bella's eyes moved to Edward and Jasper felt her reluctance. "And you did do well, from what I understand. I didn't want to spring my scent on you like that though, which is why I sent you a 'warning'."

"I appreciate that. I can't imagine sitting in a class like that." Edward spoke softly, and Jasper could feel his concern. The story was getting a little more real to him and Jasper was hoping that by the end of it Edward would understand this wasn't that Bella, because if he didn't get it, that would cause trouble.

"So it was January," Bella started up again. "It snowed for at least part of the morning, and on that day Bella noticed there were five people at the lunch table again." There was a bit of irritation coming from her. "Telling a story with my name sucks." She muttered under her breath and the phone gave off the sounds of a few of the Denali chuckling. Bella had a little bit of embarrassment, but her determination grew again. "So she was nervous about going to biology, but since he wasn't actively glaring at her she went."

"I don't believe I would have returned if I thought there was a risk." Edward spoke up.

"No, only an idiot would do that." Bella muttered, not paying as much attention to the reassurance Edward seemed to want to give her. There was some satisfaction from Rosalie at Edward not even registering on Bella's radar, and Jasper hide a small smile at that. "So during class Edward tried to start conversation, and was asking questions I think any human other than Jessica would know it was too soon to ask. He was a stranger after all, but he hated not knowing what she was thinking and was prying into why she moved, how she liked the place, what her relationship was like with her mother and step father."

"That's taking an interest in someone, that isn't prying." Edward spoke up and there were some chuckles around the table.

"No, that's prying Edward." Tanya's voice held some amusement. "You had just met this girl and you were asking private questions about her home life."

"Well, in spite of that little mistake, she told him." Bella continued, rather than let everyone tease Edward. "She didn't hate her step father, and I can't imagine she would, he's a hell a lot better than Renee deserves. I felt guilty leaving him to her without a warning." Bella muttered quietly. "I'm going to their wedding right after school gets out and I can't wait to hear how she covered up the fact that she kicked me out of the house."

"Your mother kicked you out?" Kate asked over the phone.

"Oh, yeah, well," Bella grimaced, and glanced over at Alice.

"I didn't get into how you ended up here Bella. There was so much to explain about what you really were, that I just didn't cover that." Alice explained and Bella nodded and turned to stare at the phone again.

"Renee had me going to doctor after doctor, and she was starting to try and push experimental procedures at me to try and get her doormat of a daughter back. There was an argument, and I was sent to Charlie's early. I'd been working on trying to prepare for a move, but I wasn't going to actually ask until I knew it was safe to be in the same town as Edward. I didn't get to plan it out like I wanted." Bella explained and Jasper gave her a searching look. It was just a little amazing that she'd done as much as she had to prepare. He knew she'd planned a bit, but to know what all she'd done while never letting on that she knew was impressive.

"If you weren't acting like yourself anymore, it would be understandable that a mother would try everything possible." Edward spoke up and Bella's irritation grew quickly.

"Edward, in the beginning I believed that too, but eventually I started to suspect it was something else. You can't read my mind, and Renee isn't here for you to steal the story from, so please refrain from thinking you know at all what happened." Bella stared him down and her eyes didn't waiver. Edward flared with his own irritation, but Bella's eyes moved back to the page, dismissing him before he could start to talk.

"Here is a good example of what I'm talking about with Renee." Bella tapped the page in front of her. "It was cold and icy one morning and Bella left her house, slipping on the ice on her way to the truck. She managed to get it going and made her way to school, and when she got there she finally noticed that her father had put chains on her tires for her. That Bella stood in the parking lot with tears in her eyes staring at the proof her father loved her in shock. She hadn't expected that he would get up early and do that for her, it was a foreign concept that a parent would take care of their kid. She normally took care of Renee, if it had been her and Renee in Forks she would have been asked to wake up early and do up Renee's car, after she helped Renee find some warm clothes and made Renee breakfast."

Esme's jaw was clenching and it was actually hate that emanated from her for Renee. Jasper sent Esme a bit of calm.

"While Bella was standing there, she noticed the Cullen's across the parking lot, and the horrified look crossing Alice and then Edward's face." Bella swallowed hard.

"Oh, that doesn't sound good." Emmett muttered.

"No, it doesn't. Tyler lost control of his van on the ice and it was heading right for her. It was going to crush her between two vehicles." Bella's words had the majority of the family upset, and Jasper leaked more calm out. "She'd seen Edward across the parking lot, but suddenly he was beside her, keeping the van from crushing her with a superman move that just stopped the damned thing. She saw that."

Shock raced through the room and Jasper could hear the Denali's talking quickly among themselves, stunned at the breaking of that law.

"She barely bumped her head, but since they had to pry the van away to get to them, and Edward probably wanted to discredit her eye witness account, she was taken by ambulance to the hospital." Bella looked up at Rosalie. "She did notice that Edward's family wasn't reacting right to the whole thing. Instead of being scared for him, you were mad."

"Edward tried to lie and say he'd been next to her the entire time, he tried to claim in the shock of it all she imagined him stopping a van. He finally got irritated as she pushed harder as to why she was lying for him, telling people he'd always been next to her when he hadn't been, and told her he hoped she liked living with disappointment because she would never be told." Bella felt some apprehension, as she looked up. "He avoided her, and then would tell her they couldn't be friends. He told her he'd never tell her and then wanted to hear her guesses as to what he was. He was a yo-yo, and she was growing irritated at it."

"They should have moved already." Tanya spoke up. "A mistake like that, even with one witness, they should have left or,"

Rosalie's growl filled the room and Bella gave Rosalie a weak smile. Jasper noted that Rosalie's growling didn't scare Bella at all.

"I believe there were some suggestions that Bella should have an accident, but they didn't do that. As for moving, I don't understand it either, but by then Edward was a bit obsessed as well. He was sneaking into her bedroom at night to stare at her, and she had no idea. He wasn't going to let go, and I'm sure he convinced everyone to stay." Jasper could feel Bella's irritation at Edward and it made no sense, because it started when she talked about Edward convincing everyone to stay, but before he could ask, Alice shook her head no at him.

"Later, she'll explain later" Alice subwhispered to him and he nodded just once as he returned his focus to Bella's current story.

"So he was having some lunches with her and she was sharing theories of him being a superhero. He continued to say he was a bad friend and if she had a brain she'd avoid him, all while continuing to interact with her, and he told her that he was dangerous, and not the hero. She wouldn't believe that he was bad though, dangerous maybe, bad no. He was seeking time with her and telling her she's an idiot to hang around him. I don't think he ever expected her to figure it all out, but he didn't even take into account that her father's best friend was a Quileute elder."

"They broke the treaty?" Rosalie whispered loud enough for Bella to hear, her eyes widened. "I knew we couldn't trust them."

"It wouldn't hurt to talk to the elders about how they tell their stories to the young, who won't believe them. Billy Black's son thought it was just ghost stories, that the Cold Ones weren't real and that his father's weird behavior about the Cullens moving here was actually a bit crazy. Bella got the story from him, and followed it up with research online. Jacob didn't even realize he was breaking a treaty, he was just trying to impress a girl."

"What did she do?" Carlisle asked.

"Nothing." Bella sighed heavily. "She found this huge secret and she did nothing. I believe you all were out hunting, the weather was a bit sunny, and she sat on it quietly waiting for Edward so she could tell him she knew." Bella shook her head from side to side gently as if to her own thoughts. "She was already in too deep, she wasn't about to walk away."

"She should have." Edward muttered and Bella looked up and gave him a dark look that startled Edward.

"Yes, she should have, but you're wrong as to why." Bella's voice was a bit of a growl herself and Jasper felt, perhaps for the first time, how openly their Bella didn't like Edward. He'd somehow really gotten on her bad side.

Bella took a deep breath. Edward was edgy and clearly trying to read someone's mind, but Jasper could feel how distracted Alice was. She was clearly putting up other thoughts to keep Edward out.

"There were dances at school and Jessica and Angela were going to Port Angeles to get dresses. Bella opted to ride along because there was a bookstore she wanted to check out. She hoped they'd have more on the Quileute legends I think. I'm not positive on the book she needed really." Bella's eyes glanced around the table and they landed on Rosalie for a moment, and then on Alice. Jasper felt Bella's apprehension growing. "Bella split up from the girls, she hated clothes shopping, and she was going to run to the bookstore. She got all turned around and," Her words trailed off with a sense of pain and fear filling her. Alice rubbed Bella's hand reassuringly. "Four men herded her to an abandoned area."

"Oh god." Rosalie's voice came out a sick whisper.

"Edward came before anything happened, and the got out of there without a fight." Bella grimaced. "Later Carlisle and Edward made sure they got arrested. Turns out they were filth." Her voice growled again. "They should have just called Peter if they didn't want to dirty their own hands." Alice was gently rubbing Bella's back and looked up at Jasper with a plea in her eyes, so Jasper upped the level of calm he sent to Bella. It was clear to everyone that now knew how Bella's mother died why she reacted like this.

"So you know about Peter and his diet." Jasper spoke softly, as he watched Bella calm finally.

"Yes, good man." Bella's eyes were still hard. Jasper could feel some disapproval around the table from Carlisle and Esme, and even Edward who'd lived on the scum of the world once before, but he also felt concern from everyone as they waited for Bella to rein in her emotions. The strongest emotion around the table though, was Rosalie's horror. Her eyes had even gone instantly black.

"Okay, so," Bella took a deep breath and pushed on in spite of some inner turmoil Jasper could still sense. "They caught up with Jessica and Angela, but those girls had already eaten, so Edward took Bella out for dinner. They talked about 'hypothetical mind reading' and finding people in the city with it. Edward admitted he couldn't read her, so he'd been following her friends, but didn't notice when Bella wandered off, I think it was because Jessica didn't notice."

"It's like he was trying to let her know what he was." Carlisle spoke softly.

"And we know that's against the law." Bella muttered a response. Edward was sitting up straighter, and was just starting to feel uncomfortable with this story. "It was when he was driving her home that Bella admitted to her latest 'theory' and Edward admitted he was a vampire and she was right. He also called her some form of idiot for being in the car with him, for not caring he drank blood. He was always more upscale with his insults, but basically he called Bella stupid or an idiot quite often, usually it was about her willingness to be with such an evil creature as him, or what he perceived as her lack of survival instinct, he insulted her with either his words or how he treated her as if she couldn't make the smallest of decisions when she'd been taking care of a household ever since she was a child. Having lived her life, I would be willing to bet Bella was responsible for more than Edward had ever been, and she'd had to take care of that disgrace of a mother through it all. He acted like she couldn't handle making decisions. It made me sick, and I started to actually hate him for it and her for putting up with it when I heard this story. If a human boy treated her that way I would hope she would have known to walk away, she might have had a better chance of at least thinking about it. My only thought was that Renee raised her Bella to be a doormat and it worked wonders for her, but it doomed Bella to not know when to walk away."

Disappointment and anger, shame, disgust, emotions were flowing all over the room. One good thing, in Jasper's opinion, was that shame was coming from Edward, and it was because of how he'd acted rather than what he was for a change. This Bella and perhaps that Bella as well, didn't look at what they were, but who they were and Edward wasn't measuring up as a person based on this story. He sounded like a pretty bad boyfriend.

"I'm sorry, it's a bit of a trigger for me." Bella stared down at her page again, caressing it with her fingers, trying to find something else to say. "I don't really like men that think they can take away a woman's power in any way." Her voice cracked and Rosalie moved to pull Bella into a hug, petting her hair gently.

"Don't even think about leaving this table." Emmett's voice was cold and hard as he stared at Edward. "You were warned it wasn't going to be a fun story." Jasper had felt Edward's discomfort growing, but he didn't think Edward was ready just yet to back out of his promise. He did decide to make sure to monitor Edward more carefully though, so that if he decided to leave they could stop him.

"I'm not like those monsters." Edward muttered too quiet for Bella to hear, knowing who he was being compared to.

"It's a matter of degree, Edward." Esme spoke flatly as she stared with painful longing at Bella in Rose's arms. "I was called an idiot quite often by my first husband. Usually his fist followed his words, but they all hurt." Her eyes moved to Edward and Jasper watched the odd swirl of love and shame in her, even as he noticed Edward flinch at something she was thinking. She didn't scold him openly, but something had happened to make Edward slump down in his chair feeling ashamed and pained. Bella wasn't aware of any of this happening, as she pulled away from Rosalie's hug and used a force of will to take a sip of water and look over her notes again, to start again.

"So they talked, got to know each other, and Edward had to learn to ask questions and wait for answers. He took her out to a meadow he likes and showed her how he sparkled in the sun, and ran around showing how strong and how fast he was. It would have been a good afternoon if he wasn't trying to make her scared of him at the time. He talked about how she'd have no chance against a vampire, she'd never be able to run away or fight him off. He tried to warn her off, and she didn't back off. I think they had their first kiss in that meadow, but honestly I was too disgusted by the entire scene to remember if anything good came of it."

"Man, I've known Bella for months and I've never given her the 'you are just prey' speech." Emmett growled.

"I haven't even seen you sparkle yet." Bella teased weakly, and Jasper felt her attempt at a joke eased some of the tension in the room.

"You haven't seen a vampire sparkle yet?" Tanya spoke over the phone.

"Well, they just recently realized I knew what they are." Bella gave Emmett a small smile. "So I expect I'll get to see the manly sparkling this summer."

Normally Emmett worked to relieve the tension, but Bella was taking up his normal task for him, and she had a few people amused on their end, and there was some chuckling on the other end of the phone.

"Okay then." Bella called an end to their tiny break. "After they went through the meadow debacle, Edward started to share more about his past, how he became a vampire, and a bit about those with powers in his family. He decided it was time to introduce her to the family. He'd been hogging her the entire time even though Alice knew they'd be best friends. He probably wouldn't have tried to introduce her just yet, but I'm just sure Alice was bringing it up all the time." Jasper enjoyed the affection Bella felt for Alice when Bella gave Alice a small smile. Their relationship would make it easier for Alice to hear about another girl that could have been her best friend.


	45. Chapter 45

** Jasper Pov**

"Okay, so Bella was nervous to go to Edward's house, she worried that his family wouldn't like her."

"She worried about being liked?" Edward interrupted Bella with disbelief and Bella smirked, which Jasper thought was an odd response to his attitude and question.

"Edward was stunned that she wasn't more afraid of the fact she was meeting a house full of vampires." Bella just continued as if he had said nothing, and Jasper chuckled just a little. "Esme and Carlisle were so cautious as they met her, making no sudden movements at all. Alice stunned them all by racing to Bella's side full vamp speed." Bella gave Alice a smile. "You hugged or kissed her and then commented on how good she smelled."

"Well, you do smell very good." Alice teased in that bedroom voice Jasper loved so, and got a light blush from Bella.

"Okay then," Bella grimaced at the amusement in their faces, before getting back to her story. "Jasper didn't come close, it turned out Edward told him to keep his distance." Bella's irritation was easy to see, it didn't take Jasper's gift. "Rosalie refused to meet Bella, she thought the entire thing was a disaster in the making, and wasn't willing to play nice with the 'human'." Bella looked over at Rosalie, who was receiving a few dark looks from Edward. "And it was a disaster in the making, it wasn't like she wasn't right. Emmett stayed away with Rosalie, but he had no problem meeting Bella, he just stuck with his mate. So the visit was with fewer vampires, and Bella found out Edward played piano, that Carlisle was older than dirt, and that you collect graduation caps."

"You do realize that Carlisle is merely a child in some circles?" Tanya laughed and Bella gave the phone a small smile that had Rosalie's back up again. Jasper wondered if this was how Rosalie was going to be around any single vampire being nice to Bella until she made her claim firm with Bella, and how long that might take. Edward gave out a quiet growl at Jasper's thoughts, and Jasper sent his irritation back as an emotion.

"Yes, I do. And you realize that once you reach a certain age, years don't matter anymore. Once I was twenty five, my life wasn't that much different from year to year after that. I would bet that is the same?"

"Good bet." Tanya spoke slower and Jasper wondered how the Denali's took the talk about Bella being older at one time. Edward was irritated and concerned at the twist in the topic, and Esme was strangely embarrassed by it.

"Okay then, where was I?" Bella frowned as she stared down at her notes.

"Carlisle is older than dirt." Emmett spoke up with a smile.

"Okay then, so Carlisle is older than dirt." Bella repeated with a mischievous smile and the Denali's were laughing loud enough for Bella to hear. "I don't think much else came from the meeting really, so I'll move on." Bella looked over her notes carefully. Her smile faded.

"Okay," Her voice was much more serious. "Edward pushed to be introduced to Charlie, because he claimed he needed incentive to not kill her and leave her body in the woods, and Charlie knowing it was him she was going out with would do that. I think that was stupid logic, but she finally caved and introduced him."

"Fuck man, way to woo a girl." Emmett spoke with some disgust.

"He said things like that and she still wanted to date him?" Rosalie asked with just as much disgust.

"I know, wasn't the smartest thing to do. I think people tend to feel invincible until they run into life hard." Bella sighed heavily. "But keep in mind that Bella read the old classics and the horrid doomed romances as if they were all that. Romeo and Juliet was among her favorites, so maybe she had a warped idea of love and death."

"And you love the Anita Blake series, what does that say about you?" Emmett teased.

"That I have a healthy obsession with love and death." Bella smirked.

"And sex," Alice teased.

"Who writes this Anita Blake series?" Irina asked. "Is it good?"

"It's a perverted fantasy novel with immoral relationships." Edward said in disgust and earned a few dark looks.

"So yes, it's good." Emmett added. They actually took the time out of the story to give the Denali's the author's name, like this was a book club. Jasper understood Edward's irritation at that moment. They'd worked hard to get Bella ready to share this story and they got sidetracked during it.

When they finally got back on track, Bella became resigned and tense. "So the big family date was a baseball game."

"She got to see us play? Man, I bet you'd love that." Emmett spoke up, but Bella didn't smile or react to him.

"In the middle of the game, some nomads dropped by, James, Victoria, and Laurent." Alice growled quietly at the news, and they all tensed up. "The thing with those three, is that everyone underestimated each of them. God." Bella sighed heavily and rubbed her eyes. "Okay, so James is a tracker and a sadist. Honestly, if this were going to happen, I'd be grateful that Bella was there to draw his attention, because otherwise I'm sure he would have gone after Alice again. Alice ruined his perfect kill record after all." Jasper snarled quietly and Alice's hand on his own was needed to help him calm down.

"Victoria is just as bad as him, but with her she has the added advantage of being delusional. She thought James loved her, that they were mates, but even though the story didn't say it, I'd bet he was just fascinated with her powers. She had the power to avoid danger, a super sense that made it possible for her to run through battles surrounded by her enemies and laugh and dodge every attack. She could always find the safe way out. She'd be fun for a tracker to track, she was good, really good. She was also smart and manipulative. Edward, in that ball field, didn't notice the real danger. He focused on James, and later you'll find that was a mistake."

Bella's eyes moved to the phone, and she talked right to it. "The third vampire, Laurent, he played the game well. He's the kind of guy that will appear to surrender if he thinks he'll lose, but he is just clever and a bit of a coward, he isn't one that you should turn your back on though. Carlisle made the mistake when after the first confrontation Laurent visited claiming to want no part of James plan to hunt Bella. He sent Laurent to Denali. Laurent claimed to be interested in your odd diet, lies, all lies." They could all hear Bella swallow hard. "Sometimes it's not good to believe the best in people."

"What did he do?" Tanya spoke coldly.

"I should take this in order, but," Bella glanced over at Alice, who nodded just a little. "He manipulated your family into telling him about the Cullens' gifts and shared that information. He," Her words trailed off.

Alice spoke up. "Laurent tricked Irina into thinking they were mates, and it set a series of events in motion that Bella will tell us about, but the end result is that Irina died." Shock filled the room and a few gasps were heard on both sides of the phone. "That's why Bella wanted your family to hear this. She felt you deserved to know what her being here did. I want you to know it saved you Irina, the fact that we have this Bella saved you."

"I think perhaps we should have come in person. I'm sorry that we didn't think of that." Tanya said after a tense moment.

"It's okay." Bella muttered and took several deep breaths. No one commented on the tear tracks on her face. It was something to know she was crying for a female she'd never met, and it made Jasper more concerned about if Bella had bad news for any of them, because clearly it was hard for her. Alice kept giving Bella supportive looks when she was looking and concerned looks when she wasn't.

"So Bella took off with Alice and Jasper to Phoenix to hide, while the others tried to trick James and Victoria into thinking Bella was with them." Bella was talking a bit faster than normal, but with little emotion in her voice. He pushed calm at her, but it didn't slow her down. "The nomads split up and Victoria got Bella's old address from the school, sending James there. Bella apparently did a classic prey move, heading back home and it was easy to figure out. Alice, Jasper, and Bella were hiding out in a hotel in Phoenix." Bella glanced over at him and then at Alice. "James found a way to trick you all. He convinced Bella that he had her mother, he didn't. He told her that she'd have to come to him if she wanted her mother to be okay, and he had Bella figure out how to get away from Alice and Jasper. When Edward was coming after them, after realizing that James was nearby, Bella used the airport as a way to escape. She ran right to what she expected to be her death to save Renee."

"Why wasn't I already there?" Edward growled.

"Because of how you acted in the field. The nomads assumed you wouldn't let anyone else watch over Bella, so you used that to keep them tracking you for a while. It doesn't matter, you'd have been just as helpless to stop her. You suck at trying to understand people when you don't have your gift." Bella's voice started to get a little louder at the end, but she calmed herself down.

"So James taunted her, filmed this and told her about how he'd been the one to try and kill Alice years ago. He tossed her around like a rag doll breaking bones. He also managed to make her bleed and at that point Bella was glad to bleed, because she knew it would all be over fast after that." Bella swallowed hard again, and Jasper upped his dose of calm on everyone. "Just before Edward, Jasper, Alice and Carlisle got there and killed him, he bit her hand."

Bella paused, frustratingly, and seemed to be collecting her thoughts. Everyone was silent and tensely waiting for her to speak again. "Edward really does not want a vampire mate. Bella was his singer and still when Carlisle said it might be possible to suck venom out, he tried it. He stopped the change, and then they took her to the hospital."

"Oh my god."

"Is that even possible?"

With a singer?"

Bella had stunned them all, and Jasper found himself staring at Edward with as much shock as Edward was staring at Bella with.

Bella stared back at Edward. "She'd just gone through an assault, and the certainty of her own death, and when she woke up in the hospital Edward was telling her how she'd be better off if he just left her, she'd be safer. His self loathing is disgusting and he had no sympathy left for her because he was feeling sorry for himself." Edward opened his mouth, but Bella glared at him and continued talking. "She was terrified at that moment that he'd leave her, and tried to get a promise that he wouldn't out of him. He worded it in a way that he could break it at any time, "I'll stay as long as it's good for you." He said, what a bullshit move. So that means he's taken all the power away from her right after an assault, and she knows, part of her knows, that the end is dangling over her and she is powerless to do anything about it. She tried to believe him, that he wouldn't be arbitrary about 'good for you', but she was never really the same after he said those words. There was a hint of desperation to her. James couldn't destroy her, but now it was Edward's turn to try."

"Is it really necessary to be this harsh?" Carlisle spoke up and Bella turned to look at him with eyes older than even her thirty six years.

"Powerlessness." Bella said to Carlisle, "Have you ever taken Psychology classes? Was that the right feeling to instill in Bella right after she came too?" She glanced at Edward. "Do you know what I'm talking about?"

"It was a mistake to do that." Edward managed weakly. "It was absolutely the wrong thing to do to a woman at that time."

"That's right." Rosalie spoke firmly, just those two words, but it kept anyone else from talking for a tense moment.

"That seemingly tiny scene stood out to me in the story and I could see what it did. Your self hatred, and willingness to blame everything on your being a vampire is not healthy for you and until you deal with it, and learn to love yourself, you will hurt, seriously hurt, anyone that tries to love you. Even if you think your soul is damned, it is not like you're going to die soon, so why let it haunt you?"

Edward was feeling confused and hurt. Jasper noted that Carlisle seemed to have decided to feel some guilt of his own. Bella just shook her head and sighed heavily. "Okay, so to make matters worse let's return to Renee and her lovely parenting skills. The story was that Bella was so upset about falling in love with anyone from a small town that she ran away, and Edward and his family raced after her. It would be a fear that Renee instilled her her, because she hated that she'd married young and had a child, and she didn't keep that a secret from Bella. You all claimed that Bella fell down the stairs and through a window to get all those cuts and broken bones. Once Bella was awake, Renee talked to her for a little bit, pointing out that she was concerned that it seemed like Edward loved her. She didn't address the apparent insanity that was Bella running away from love as if it would kill her. Renee didn't want Bella falling in love so young. Then Renee smiles, pats Bella on the head and says she has to go home and make dinner for Phil. I met Phil, he would have been the first to say Renee should be with her daughter at a time like that, but instead Renee left the Cullens in charge of taking care of her child, while she left the hospital. Fucking bitch. I don't know how Bella wasn't mortified that you would all see how little her mother cared, but she was used to it and didn't think a thing of it. Bella went to her death for that woman, she was hurt because she tried to save that woman, and Renee didn't stay an hour."

Bella swore openly and with anger, and Esme didn't even get irritated at it. That was a clear clue that Esme agreed with what Bella was saying. Jasper felt some anger all around the table, even from Edward, at that moment.

"That was her relationship with her mother, and her relationship with Charlie wasn't anywhere as good as mine is with him. Sure, they loved each other, but she could barely talk to him. You need to keep that in mind when you think about that Bella, because she latched onto your family so tight in her mind. It was what she imagined family should be, and it came with what she considered the perfect man for her. She put all her hopes and dreams into this house. That's about to prove to be a mistake she made." Jasper could hear and feel the pain in Bella's words and realized that Bella wasn't just talking about the girl from the story here. Whether or not Bella realized it, she'd also put her entire life into this family. Whatever they learned today, he was going to bring that up. Bella felt it was a mistake for the other Bella to put her heart on the line here, and yet she was doing it herself. How was that affecting her?

"Alice had visions of Bella becoming a vampire." Bella spoke up and Edward turned to glare at Alice, so Jasper turned to stare at him threateningly. "Edward was dead set against it. That didn't put Bella in a good place. He tried to keep information from her, and so in the two years that story I'm telling you spans I learned very little about what it means to be a vampire. If Bella learned it in the story, it wasn't from Edward. Alice explained how very painful being turned was, even though she doesn't remember it for herself."

"I think that I should have a say in if MY mate became a vampire." Edward hissed out. Jasper's eyes widened at the rage he felt coming from Bella at that moment.

Bella's eyes narrowed. "Oh, and should your mate decide what your diet should be? Would you switch to human if she asked?" He looked as appalled as all of them were at that moment. "Oh right, what you eat is your choice, because it's important, but what your potential mate IS is not her choice. I don't get it. Doesn't matter to me though, wait until the end of the story before you open your mouth and prove to be an ass, don't worry you sang that tune repeatedly throughout this story."

"Okay, there is no need for that language." Esme spoke up. "Bella, calm down."

Jasper watched Bella grit her teeth and she was taking deep breaths for a moment. "Okay, let me put it this way." Bella looked up and this time addressed Esme. "Bella knew Alice had a vision of her being a vampire, and she knew Edward was forever seventeen. She was seventeen, so it was okay. However, when her birthday started to get close and she was going to be eighteen she started having nightmares. She started getting nervous. How old of a woman can a seventeen year old boy date? You all live in towns, around humans, so the rules will appear to apply. How long can she have her mate before she's forced to give him up or lie? At what point is she facing jail time if people realize she's with him?" Bella stared at Esme. "If you pretended to date Edward, if you were using that as your cover instead of the parent, would you get away with it? You're only how many years older than him? Less than ten right?" Bella shook her head as Esme frowned at her. "Bella knew this, knew that if it wasn't addressed she'd be single before graduating college, she'd have to be, or she could be the dirty little secret for the rest of her life, that's nice. Problem was she saw Edward as her forever and she had nightmares about being old and grey while he looked the same. I know it would be hard for me to navigate those emotions, and I'm an adult, that teenager girl was a mess, and he wouldn't even talk to her about it, wouldn't explain his position in any detail, give real reasons why, he just issued a blanket no. He might as well of said she'd be a nice bit on the side, but he didn't see it going anywhere. In the back of her mind she knew he'd threatened to leave her, and now she has a limited time when she's appropriate for him before she's too old. That girl was in tears because she turned eighteen."

Bella glanced at Alice and there was some pain in her eyes. "She didn't want a party, it wasn't a good thing in her mind and she had a real problem accepting gifts. To be given something meant she owed something in return in her mind. It's screwed up, but I'm sure that's Renee's fault too. Alice bullied her into a party, and wouldn't listen to the fact Bella said no." Bella's voice went softer. "There was no way to know how horribly wrong it would go. I understand wanting to celebrate something you probably don't do yourselves anymore, I get it, and I don't want you to beat yourself up for more than just not listening." A sense of dread filled the room and Jasper reached out to take Alice's hand to support her.

"It's okay Bella. I know what happened, and I'm ready for this." Alice spoke softly, but it wasn't hard to see the pain in her face. Bella had some tears in her eyes again, and he felt her reluctance, her urge to just stop, but Bella forced herself on.

"Jasper, you ran into the ballet studio with everyone else and you helped kill James even as Bella was bleeding profusely on the floor. You never went after her there. You were able to be near her in the hotel with no problems that I could see." Bella swallowed hard. "But after that attack Edward issued a no contact rule for you. What would happen if Edward didn't practice with my scent and didn't get exposed to it at all and then I walked into the house and sliced a finger open good?"

"Oh my god." Rosalie whispered, her fear and dread growing. Jasper noticed Rosalie grasping at Emmett's hand hard.

"Limiting exposure made it worse and Bella sliced her finger open on a gift." Bella spoke with a flat tone. "Jasper started toward her and Edward moved to push her out of the way and block him, but he pushed hard and she flew across the room and into the glass bowl, slicing her entire arm opened." Bella shook her head. "You guys weren't ready and it was too much blood. Everyone but Carlisle had to leave while he tended to her."

"It was while Carlisle was tending to her that Bella finally learned why Edward said no to turning her. He believed in heaven and hell and thought vampires lost their souls. He'd been dating her for about 6 months at this point and he couldn't have told her something that core to his beliefs in that time? Instead he let her feel unwanted every time he dismissed the conversation." Bella shook her head and Jasper gave Edward a shake of his own head at the idiocy of his brother in this story. "It makes me wonder what the hell they ever talked about, if this never came up." Under her breath Bella muttered.

"Anyway," Bella glanced at the phone again, as if just remembering it. "Bella lived with an increasing feeling of dread for a few days as Edward distanced himself from her emotionally. She looked for Alice, for help, but Alice wasn't there. It was senior year so she had no idea that no one else was still there. Edward took her out into the woods, woods he'd told her never to wander into, and he ripped her soul away with his words. He didn't want her, he was tired of pretending to be human, she was a nice diversion but he'll find other things to occupy his time. Oh, please try to live, for Charlie's sake, but the family and I are leaving. They didn't stay to say goodbye, it's easier that way." Bella's voice was cold and angry. "What she heard was she wasn't good enough for him, and that Alice, Alice had left her behind. She could only mutter that in shock as he started to leave her there."

"Oh god." Alice let out a quiet pained whisper. "Never, I'll never do that Bella." Bella couldn't hear it, it was too quiet, but everyone else did and Jasper sent calm and peace into his distraught mate. Bella couldn't even look up from her paper, but with the tears hitting the page he doubted she was reading it.

"She ran after him when he left, further into the woods and got lost out there. Eventually Sam Uley, the first of the wolves, found her. Edward left her to keep her away from supernatural creatures and now Bella was about to learn about the shifters, the wolves, that were starting to change in La Push. It would take a while though, because she had a mental breakdown and lost months of her life moving around mechanically and hearing nothing. You all left in September, and I think she didn't even understand what was happening or notice time slipping by until February. I think she would have killed herself if he hadn't gotten that promise out of her, but the problem with promises," Bella looked up at Edward. "Who keeps promises to people who broke your heart and their own promises? You asked her to live to be safe, and once she got through a few stages of grief, she did what most girls her age would do, anything you wouldn't want her to."

Edward needed help and Jasper moved his focus to him, to try and calm him and remove some of the pain he was feeling.

"She discovered that if she put her life in danger her mind would fill in a hallucination of Edward's voice, angry at her for being in danger. It was warped, but Edward took everything she had, every picture, she had nothing to remember him by and so she took to putting her life in danger to hear him. She got closer to Jacob as she learned to ride motorcycles. Jacob wanted her, and he also was a fun guy to be around. Bella never smiled anymore and it was a surprise to her to find she was capable of it around him." Bella stared up at Edward with little compassion. "Jacob became a wolf. Turned out to be a good thing though, because you all killed James and Edward tried to track Victoria on his way out of town, but he's not a tracker and she's smart. Victoria decided to kill Bella, and the wolves were in the way without even realizing why she was coming to Forks."

"You mean we left her with a vampire after her?" Esme's voice cracked.

"And she was losing marbles fast." Emmett added.

"Yes she was, and yes, you did. Gets worse." Bella sighed and looked at the phone again. "Irina." Bella muttered so quietly it was probably to herself, but everyone heard it. "Bella was in the woods, because she was looking for the meadow, the last place she thought might make her happy, she'd spent time with Edward there. Edward wasn't the vampire she found there though." Bella took a shaky breath. "Bella was actually happy to see Laurent, the first vampire she'd seen in months. She'd heard he joined the Denali coven and expected he was safe. She asked how he liked Tanya, I think that might be the only name she remembered from your coven, and he said 'I like Tanya fine, but I really like her sister Irina.' Seemed innocent enough, even a good sign, but he followed it up with telling her he was there on a favor for Victoria and she should be grateful he found her, because Victoria was going to be ruthless and he'd kill her quickly. The wolves came, Bella saw them for the first time as they chased Laurent away and ripped him apart. She didn't know they won though, so she went home and laid in bed every night waiting to be killed for days. She was determined to take her death in silence so that maybe her dad wouldn't come and get killed too. Laurent just never came to do it, and Victoria was working on other plans at the moment."

"Oh god, that brave girl." Irina muttered loud enough for Bella to hear. Hearing it, Bella seemed to relax a little on her own, so Jasper didn't have to hold as much calm over her.

….

**Esme pov**

Esme had dreamed about Edward finally finding a mate, for him to no longer be the odd man out, but it was sounding more and more like a nightmare. All the problems he'd had that she'd assumed love would fix, like his self hatred, and his somewhat misogynistic views, actually caused problems and weren't resolved. She felt like a failure, not realizing that he'd need to work on himself first, that he wasn't ready for love. That poor girl from the story had suffered because they'd let Edward's emotional issues continue rather than upset him with asking him to work on dealing with them. They'd coddled him right into torturing his own mate with his issues and pain.

The thought that even as they watched that happen, they hadn't stopped him shamed her endlessly. If that Bella was even a fraction of what this Bella was, they should have stood up for her, but they didn't. Why didn't they? Should she ask Bella? Would she know?

"Bella," Esme spoke just as Bella was apparently getting ready to, but Bella didn't seem to mind. "Do you know why we didn't stand up for her? If all of this was happening we should have done something."

Bella sighed softly and looked thoughtful. "I'm not sure, but Edward was good about isolating her, controlling her, so perhaps you all never really got to know her much." Those words made Esme sick, because those were the actions of an abuser, she was very familiar with that. "It seemed to me that you loved her just because he loved her, it was just how she made him feel that earned her a place here." Bella frowned at that just as Esme did. "I think Alice was the only one that she really spent any time with other than Edward, and the story didn't talk about that much."

"So she didn't spend time with Rosalie?" Edward asked and Esme resisted giving him a glare, because she understood the cutting remark there.

"No, Rosalie didn't like her." Bella gave a small smile at Rosalie, so she was clearly not upset with the idea. "Bella didn't think things through and accepted a 'master', because Edward didn't treat her like an equal. She also wanted to be a vampire simply because Edward was one, she had no facts and didn't seem to care, she was willing to make up her mind without much to go on because Edward forbid anyone to talk about it. It didn't really seem like she thought about much and I know that had to grate on Rose." Bella's voice was softer, and her eyes stayed on Rosalie in a way that showed Edward had lost that little battle long before he thought to fight it. Esme wasn't sure how she'd missed this happening, and she wondered if Bella was even aware of how she looked at Rosalie.

Bella continued by looking back at Edward. "I don't like her myself, I just think she deserved better but she was a bit messed up too. She did some things to Edward I don't agree with either. And as for her constantly asking to be a vampire," Bella shook her head, "who makes a huge decision based strictly on emotions? I can't even imagine not researching something important. Hell, I researched my college major for two years before committing and I still screwed it up." That reminded Esme that she really needed to help Bella pick her major this time, because she was about to pick the wrong thing again, all because she wanted stability. If Rose got what she wanted, Bella would have stability, so she could pick a major that made her happy and not miss out on anything.

"Are you really going to support that?" Edward whispered angrily at her.

"I honestly don't see where it's any of my business." She answered just as quietly. Bella heard none of it and the family looked a bit confused, the few that had heard it. It shouldn't have been loud enough for the Denali's to catch. It wasn't Esme's business, but that didn't mean she wasn't apprehensive with the idea. It seemed so strange and wrong, but then she'd never met anyone in a relationship like that before and she couldn't say that it wouldn't work. She was doubtful, but still if the possibility existed she wasn't going to be the one to say no. She was going to, however, make sure this Bella was never under the impression she was accepted just because she was dating someone in the family if it did happen. No, this Bella was welcome to join their family at any time, no need to 'marry into it'.

Tanya spoke up. "What was it like waking up in a new body?"

"Terrifying." Bella spoke that one word that it encapsulated everything and Esme felt a pang of pain for her, knowing she'd just recently, finally, had someone she could talk to about that. "In the beginning I was really worried I'd be locked away. Then I was worried Renee would scramble my brains with experimental drugs. I'm also not a fan of the fact that I've lost all my adult privileges. I have a curfew now, and I just managed to get a job, but I can't use my real resume so it's a crappy job. Still, this life is starting to grow on me, and if I'm honest, I was dying and I'd have accepted a lot worse to keep living."

"Would you accept being a vampire, if that was what was required? If the Volturi learn about you there is a very large risk to all of us now." Tanya spoke and there was a hiss from both Edward and Rosalie, but Esme watched Bella just pause for a moment, clearly thinking about it.

"Well, yeah, between death and vampire, I'd prefer vampire, but I'm still learning what it is to be a vampire and if I had to choose between human and vampire I don't have the information to even start deciding that one. I do know I'd beat anyone's ass who turned me before I'm twenty if I wasn't a minute from dead already."

"Okay, good to know." Tanya sounded amused and somewhat relieved. Esme wasn't sure how she felt at all, but Bella was glancing at her notes again and there was doubtlessly more to share that would shake up Esme's world, so she pushed the thoughts of making Bella a vampire to the back of her mind for now, since it didn't seem like an immediate threat and Bella wasn't asking for anything more than information, if that.

"Okay, back to the story. When Bella found out Jake was a wolf, she became close to the pack and Jake started to push a bit harder for her to 'chose him'. He wanted her as a girlfriend and she was so desperate for someone to fill the hole in her chest that Edward left her with that she was considering it. She didn't think she'd ever fully love again, but she did really like Jacob and she could make HIM happy. She was giving up, and to a wolf which is stupid as can be. They imprint, which means any length of relationship can be tossed aside once the wolf imprints on their 'soulmate' and she would have just been left, again, and I really don't think she would have survived it again." Bella glanced at Esme and that had Esme tensing up, because Bella had done that every time she was about to say something that would hurt someone specifically, she'd look at them first, with those sad eyes.

"Bella still had her 'voice' in her head but it was getting harder for her to get him to talk. She'd seen the wolves diving from cliffs and she decided to do that." Esme quietly put a hand over her mouth, because for Bella to have looked at her before this meant that Bella knew Esme had tried to commit suicide once, by jumping off a cliff. Shame filled her, along with concern for a girl that no longer existed. "It was a bad day to cliff dive for several reasons. When she hit the water she found out that the storm also made the waters churn and she wasn't strong enough to swim in that. She also noticed something red in the water, which later I learned was Victoria's hair, that vampire was just moments away from capturing her, when the wolves came. Jacob swam her to shore and revived her. He took her home to recover and then drove her to her house."

There was a pause that took a while and they all watched Bella frown and consider her words. "Charlie's friend Harry died that day, heart trouble. There were other things going on, but I'm not sure they are important here. When Bella got to the house, Carlisle's car was outside. She was eager to see someone, anyone, and Jacob was pissed that she'd be willing to talk to any of you after all that happened. The wolves are very prejudiced, but also seeing the pain Bella constantly went through, well, Jacob was not going to be calm about this. He left her there, because with a Cullen in town he couldn't be in Forks, even though Victoria was hunting her. Fucked up treaty, but keeping the wolves out is probably better if we avoid the Victoria problem." Esme had not enjoyed the crafting of that treaty so she wasn't eager to approach the tribe and ask for changes. Bella's language left a bit to be desired, but with the tension coming off of her Esme didn't have the heart to say anything.

"Alice was stunned to see Bella was alive. She'd seen her jump and then nothing, because wolves don't show in her visions." Bella glanced over at Alice, who just reached out and took her hand, holding it. Esme braced herself, because something was coming. Bella's eyes were looking all over the room and it was hard to interpret that warning and not think a world of pain was on the way.


	46. Chapter 46

** Emmett Pov**

Emmett watched Bella and how hard she was holding Alice's hand and knew this was just too hard. He wished they hadn't ask for her to tell this story now, even though it was obvious how it was good to know, it was hurting her. She had tears in her eyes much too often, and she had them right now.

"So, when the family left Forks things didn't go well for them." Bella spoke up. "Only Rosalie was happy to be rid of Bella, and the others were just going through the motions." Rose's hand gripped his arm harder. It was a bit sad how little he and Rosie had to do with the other Bella, and this showed why. He knew his Rosie was a tough nut to crack, but so worth it. That Bella apparently didn't get to know that.

They went into this story knowing that their Bella, was afraid of hurting Rose, and that meant something was coming because other than the animosity Bella talked about nothing had really happened there. Emmett glanced at the clock and kind of wished that this was like a movie, because in a movie you could look at a clock and know when it was almost over, which was usually when the worst of the story happened. Without that, they had no idea if it was almost over yet.

"Edward had convinced his family to leave without even saying goodbye, but then he'd left them as well. He attempted to track Victoria, but then he just ended up in South America, curled up on the floor, waiting to die. He felt like he was sacrificing his happiness for Bella's safety, but he'd sacrificed her as well, and all to his emotional demons." Bella took a shaky breath, which did not bode well in Emmett's mind. "Alice had told her family why she'd left, and Rosalie was tired of Edward's moping. She didn't understand that he actually loved that human, and she made a poor decision." Bella paused, but she couldn't make herself look up. Emmett opened his hand and Rosie slipped hers into his. "Rose called Edward and for once, in months, managed to get him to answer the phone. She told him that his human was dead and he should just come home."

"Oh my god." Esme muttered quietly, so as not to interrupt Bella, but Rosie's steel grip proved that his wife was just as upset with that. Emmett ignored Edward's growl for now, but if he acted like the damaged party and tried to hurt his Rosie, Emmett would teach the boy a lesson. In this time, with this Bella, it was Rosie who understood what Bella was worth and Edward was just delusional to think that he still held the high ground here.

"Edward tried to call, to verify, but he had poor timing because there was a funeral going on that day, and Jacob was at the house trying to convince Bella that they should be together. He answered the phone and when the man on the other side asked to talk to Charlie, Jacob told him Charlie was at the funeral. Edward was convinced it was Bella's funeral and he enacted his plan. He always planned to die right after Bella did." Emmett looked up and could see how sick everyone looked at Bella's words. "Edward headed to Voltura to ask for death. "

"Look what your selfishness did." Edward growled at Rosalie. Rosalie seemed to shrink into herself in pain and Emmett started to bare his teeth at Edward, but before he could growl, they were all shocked at the weak unfamiliar growl that filled the room.

"You're so busy pointing fingers, but you don't notice you're planning to suicide in this story? Look at Esme, you self centered prick, look at her. Don't you dare go blaming Rose for this." Emmett turned to see Esme, sure that Edward would do the same, and it was heart wrenching to see the pain in Esme's eyes. "You had always planned to kill yourself when Bella was gone, and always planned to keep her human, so she was going to die. That girl was a danger magnet. You expected her to live to be old and grey, but it was against the odds that she'd ever be that, you'd saved her from death so many times and only a few of them involved vampires, she wouldn't be safe just because the vampires she'd come to care for were gone. From the start, this was what you were going to do to your family. Rosalie just jumped the gun on your plan." Bella's words had Esme flinching, and Emmett glanced to the side to make sure Edward was listening.

"So you, you look at what your selfishness did." Her voice softened just a hint. "When Danny died, when I found out what he'd done, I was so angry at him, and so upset with myself for not seeing it. I was mad at myself for being angry too. I was a mess. It was a horrible time. I still wonder if I could have seen something, could have done something, if I had been there." Her eyes stared holes in Edward. "This isn't going to happen here, but if we are going to be laying blame on people who put others in danger in this story, when I've already stopped this, you're about to be ripped apart, because you're about to put your family and Bella on the Volturi's radar."

Emmett watched as his human BFF stared down Edward as if she'd climb over the table and rip him a new one if he bothered Rosie and found it wasn't as funny as he thought it would be. No, even as a human, Bella Bear knew how to lay down the law and it didn't seem funny at all. "The Volturi are worse than even you know."

"What do you know about the Volturi?" Carlisle asked after an awkward silence.

"I think that needs to be after I tell this part." Bella tore her eyes away from Edward to look at Carlisle. "At least we have the Denali's on the line, you can get your confirmation as soon as I'm done."

"I find I really want to hear what you have to say." Eleazer spoke for the first time, and Emmett could hear the tension in his voice.

"Soon." Bella sighed and Alice handed her a glass of water, which they all watched her take a drink from. It was obvious that her hand was shaking just a little. "Okay, so Edward was heading to Voltura, and Alice ran back into the house because she'd had the vision. If she went alone to try and stop him, he'd just act faster and he'd doubt anything she told him. No, the only way to save Edward would be if Alice brought Bella to Voltura. He couldn't deny she was alive if she was right there."

"No," Edward spoke in a stunned quiet way, everyone else stopped moving at all. Emmett froze as well, for a moment, before pulling Rosalie and her chair closer to him. That might not be their Bella, it might not happen, but to hear Bella tell this story made it all too real and personal. The only Bella Emmett could envision in this story was his own, and that made it so much worse.

"Jacob argued with her, pleaded with her, to just stay with him. That he loved her and she should just ignore what Edward was doing. He didn't understand why she'd care, he hated that she cared. Still, in spite of how badly Edward hurt her, Bella grabbed her passport and went with Alice on the rescue mission. They had to move fast, Edward had a head start on them and it was too much of a head start. It was possible that Alice and Bella would land in Italy too late and just have to get back on another plane to return." Emmett noticed Bella was becoming more of a story teller, making it more real, making it harder to hear, and he wondered if this was as a punishment to Edward for yelling at Rosalie. Edward turned to look at Emmett at that moment, letting Emmett know his thoughts had been heard, and then gave Bella a cautious studying gaze.

"Don't piss off Bella today Edward, she'll go for emotional blood." Emmett whispered quietly. If it only upset Edward he'd enjoy it, but this part of the story, no one wanted to be able to visualize this part. Emmett found himself doing math, Bella said she had two years of THAT Bella's story, and he didn't think two years had gone by, so it had to be okay, didn't it?

"The brothers denied Edward's request while Bella and Alice were making their way over the ocean, if they'd agreed quickly there would have been no saving him." Bella grimaced. "Edward, obviously had to admit to his crimes in his plea for death, he had to let the Volturi know that the Cullens had let a human exist that knew the secret, and that on top of that they'd left her behind. If Edward weren't gifted I don't think it would have mattered that everyone thought that Bella was dead, I think he would have been given his own death quickly. Instead Edward had to come up with a plan to earn that death, and it was to expose himself during St. Marcus day at noon in front of all those humans. It was a beautiful sunny day." Bella looked up and stared a little blankly at the wall near Edward. "Noon was still pushing it. Alice stole a fast car and they drove like a bat out of hell away from the airport and through Italy. As they were driving, Alice told Bella that it was too sunny, and if Edward knew she was coming he'd react before they could stop him. The girl who regularly tripped over her own feet, was going to have to run through the town, through the people, as fast as her little human feet could take her and get to the clock tower. If she failed, they would possibly all die." Bella swallowed hard and Emmett could see the pain in Alice's face. "Bella was fine with that, she would want to die if she failed. She just hoped Alice got away."

"Fuck." Emmett muttered under his breath. No one said anything about his interrupting.

"Don't drag this out Bella." Alice told Bella with a pleading tone and Bella turned to stare into Alice's eyes for a moment, before nodding just a little. "Just the facts, we don't need more."

"Okay. Alice, Bella and Edward were taken to the feeding room to meet with the brothers. It was shortly before lunch apparently." Bella's voice was less emotional, less of a story teller and she was listing out facts. It made it a bit easier to hear. "They found Bella's shield and it made Aro offer to let them live and leave if he knew for sure Bella would be turned some day soon. Edward refused. It looked like they'd all die, but Alice stepped forward to share her vision of Bella as a vampire, and she said she'd do it herself if she had to. Edward was pissed at her, I guess he preferred to die with Bella right at that moment than give them a chance to live. Alice got them out of there, but the Volturi promised to visit."

"Shit, she was standing right there, and you couldn't even lie to make them let you go?" Emmett turned disgusted eyes to Edward. He noticed that Edward was running rough hands through his hair, messing it up good and proper.

"You can't lie to Aro." Carlisle spoke up. "He'd know, no, someone would have to mean what they said to get out of that." Emmett followed Carlisle's eyes to see he was watching Alice, who did look a little rough.

"Aro collects people with gifts, and he was fascinated with Alice and Edward, but especially Alice. He had huge hopes for Bella since her power was enough to stop him already, as a human." Bella's eyes moved to the phone. "Eleazer, you've noticed how when a coven appears to break the law he'll give a few of them the chance to redeem themselves, but it's only the ones with powers? He made up some of those crimes just to get his powerful guard."

There was a tense silence as the vampires could hear Eleazer muttering, and getting increasingly agitated. "He used me."

"To determine who lived and who died, yes." Bella turned her eyes to Alice. "Alice is the most interesting vampire he'll ever meet and if you ever want death bad enough to risk this family Edward, just hang around La Push, the wolves will turn and they'd be willing to do the job. Don't ever go to the Volturi, because they'll kill everyone, and they'll steal Alice." Bella turned to glare at him.

"You know this for sure?" Carlisle asked and Emmett thought Carlisle looked like Bella kicked his puppy.

"Later the Volturi will show their true colors in this story Carlisle, and yes I'm sure. Edward brought their attention to this family and at this point in the story Aro is just waiting for the tiniest excuse to march on Forks and get a real live precog. I wouldn't doubt that was why he let Bella live, so he'd have an excuse to go there later and if Edward got his way, in not turning her, an excuse to punish your family."

"I'm thinking she's right Carlisle." Eleazar added and Carlisle let out all the air in his lungs and just stared at the table, his shoulders slumped.

….

**Jasper Pov**

Tension was high around the table, and Jasper was working to ease it while also taking in the fact that Bella considered the Volturi a clear and present danger to his mate. It was all he could do to not take Edward out back to kick his ass for his role in this story, and how he'd created such a mess, but it was a story at this point.

"Can we take a break?" Alice asked, surprising a few people around the table, including Bella. Jasper looked over at the story teller and could see her frown. "Please Bella, you need something to eat and I think everyone just needs a moment to absorb what you've shared already."

"I don't think I can eat." Bella admitted and Jasper felt Esme and Rosalie's concern just as quickly as the words were said.

"Jasper will help you, and everyone else will stay here. They won't go away, they won't get away, just because you take a moment. You're human, you need it." Alice stood up and took Bella's hand. Jasper stood to follow them into the kitchen, knowing Alice did this for a reason, and based on the emotions in the house everyone did need a break. Esme stayed at the table to talk to Edward, rather than follow them into the kitchen.

Jasper worked to keep Bella calm enough to eat, but still the human selected foods she considered easier. He also continued to try and calm Edward or Esme once in a while as their conversation got emotional. The Denali's were off the phone for a little while, and perhaps they were even able to move around, but here, Bella was so worried they'd leave that no one but Alice and Jasper left the main room, and only because they left with Bella.

"Bella," Alice spoke softly and stared at the human until Bella looked up. Jasper stayed quiet and still as he noticed the way Alice looked at her. Alice was about to say something important. "You need to hurry up with the rest of this. If you keep turning this into a story, instead of a briefing, it'll hurt more. I know you are probably doing this to slow it down, you don't want to get to the end, but I believe humans call it ripping the band aid off quickly. You need to just get it all out there where we can deal with it. Just dump it out there." Bella's anxiety increased. "Keep it clinical, keep it impersonal, and it'll be easier."

"How will he learn if it's easy?" Bella asked quietly.

"We're not here to teach Edward anything." Jasper spoke up softly. "Darlin' we just need the facts and if he wants to learn something he can ask for more later, but he's already got a lot to chew on. If he has a single brain cell in his head, he'll consider what all you said already."

"This is not about Edward." Alice added. "That Bella, and that story might have been about him, but this, what we're doing, it's about you Bella. This is all about you. We want to understand what happened, so that we can protect you." It was stunning to feel the shock, and the sudden understanding, the affection and the relief, that all came from Bella as she understood why they were doing this, why they were putting Bella, and themselves, through this.

"I do want to thank you for the warning about the Volturi though darlin'." Jasper spoke softly to Bella, while keeping his eyes on hers. Now that he knew the danger he could better try and protect his own mate and Bella made sure they'd know.

"You're welcome." Bella muttered, before turning her eyes down. Jasper just smiled at the shy looking response, before taking the plate in front of her and walking it to the sink for her.

They sat in silence while Bella slowly finished her drink. The woman was clearly deep in thought and Jasper respected Alice's request to let her take her time. "Jasper, I hate to keep asking more of you."

"I'll watch out for her." Jasper offered easily. "Why didn't you tell her to keep it brief before?"

Alice sighed. "Because it needed to hurt a bit, if we wanted to make sure none of us made these mistakes with our Bella, but the rest of this story is going to hurt enough as is. She doesn't need to perform it for us." His mate looked up at him with sad, tired eyes, "Rosalie and Edward, everyone, this is a hard story. At least she's figuring out how to soften it." Alice's voice cracked and Jasper ached to pull her into his arms, but Bella didn't know they were talking and she put her glass down.

"I guess we better get this over with." Bella said, resigned and weary.


	47. Chapter 47

** Bella Pov**

Bella stared down at her notes, which were just where she left them. She was sure that if anyone had tried to read them it would be frustrating, because it was just phrases or single words to spark Bella's memory. It was done that way so that if anyone got these notes it wouldn't cause any problems.

She looked up at the others around the table, before moving to sit down again. "You did say we could ask questions." Carlisle spoke softly, even while Rosalie was dialing the Denali's back.

"You have a question?" Bella wasn't sure if she should answer any questions now, or wait, but she could hear it and tell him to wait if she had to.

"Just a simple one. How far into the story are we?" Carlisle asked and Bella felt herself relax as it was something she could answer. She didn't like putting Carlisle off repeatedly.

"We're at Spring Break during Senior year. We have maybe nine months left to go. A very hard nine months."

"Tanya, do you have everyone?" Rosalie asked even as she hit a button and the speaker went active.

"Yes, we didn't go far as we waited for your call." Tanya spoke just a little softer than before, and Bella stared at the phone display again. Tanya had gotten the most ridiculously easy phone number to remember. It seemed a waste, since vampires had such good memories. "Did you have a good lunch Bella?"

"It was okay. I didn't eat much." Bella answered, a little surprised she was asked. "I don't do well when I mix nerves with food. I don't want to scare Alice again, the poor thing is so tense when I eat now. It's like she's waiting for my lunch to kill me, and I'm not the one eating bears and lions."

"You exaggerate my dear." Alice gave her a small smile, but Bella did know Alice watched her a bit carefully when she ate.

"Before we start again, can I say something?" Tanya spoke up, ending the talk about lunch or food.

"Sure," Bella was fine with delaying the story just a little longer, as she tried to reshuffle what she'd be saying in her mind. She'd planned to talk a bit about the overbearing attitude and the way Edward basically imprisoned Bella for a while, but if this wasn't about Edward or that Bella really, it wasn't actually the important part of the story now.

"We just wanted to thank you for allowing us to be a part of this. Clearly this is difficult for you and we appreciate that you thought of us." Tanya spoke so sincerely and Bella blushed.

"I thought you needed to hear this." She told the coven on the phone.

"We do, and thank you." Tanya told her again.

"You're welcome." Bella answered, unsure if that was really the thing to say. It was kind of awkward really.

"Can we get back to the story?" Rosalie interrupted and Bella looked over at the blonde vampire. Alice's words replayed in her mind as she looked at a slightly irritated looking Rosalie. Get it out fast and it might not hurt as much. God, she couldn't imagine anything would help, but she was going to try.

"Okay, back to it." Bella took a deep breath to try and prepare herself. "Charlie was pissed when they got back, and Bella was grounded. Jake called to make some threats, not wanting her around the vampires he decided she'd have to choose and she was never going to choose him. He was great for her as a friend, but when he turned to a wolf and wanted more he was starting to get just as overbearing as her vampire. It's part of why I really wanted him to understand I'd never date him, because Jake has the potential to be the leader of the pack and I don't want a whole pack of wolves thinking they can tell me what I can do." Bella explained. It was about her, Alice said that, but still it seemed odd to add herself to this story. "They've been taught to be as prejudiced as hell against vampires and it's kind of sickening to hear."

"They were like that long before we met them." Carlisle spoke. "But I'm surprised that the wolves are coming back."

"They blame you all for that. Apparently when vampires are near the tribe protectors are chosen." Bella explained something she'd missed from the last book. "And once they turn wolf they have to give up all their hopes and dreams for the future, because the tribe expects them to stay and be protectors, nothing much else. I think that's a screw up with the tribe, and the elders could have made it easier on the wolves, but it's so much easier to turn them into warrior slaves than help them in any way I guess. They even know when one is turning, or whatever they call it and won't warn them."

"So the tribe elders take away all their hopes and dreams and blame us for that?" Rosalie sounded pissed. "All to make the mutts more angry at us."

"How long do we have before Jacob changes, Bella?" Alice spoke up and Bella turned to see her looking thoughtful.

"If nothing changes, almost two years, but if it's the scent of vampires that gets it started, well, you all visit my house a lot and Charlie invites the Blacks over once in a while."

"Now's not really the time, but after the story is over we might be able to work out a way to ease Jacob into being a more compassionate wolf." Alice smiled just a little and Bella considered what she was saying, and started to smile herself. She could 'raise' Jacob to be better about vampires than Billy wanted him to be. Jacob thought his dad was a little crazy at this point, and if they acted before he realized his dad was actually right they'd be affecting the strongest wolf in the pack. Given the story that Bella was about to share, they might need the strongest wolf in the pack on their side someday.

"I like how you think." Bella grinned at Alice as they both schemed for a better future.

"I hate it when Edward and Alice do this Bella, what are you planning?" Emmett interrupted them.

Alice turned to face the others faster than Bella did. "Bella's going to use her friendship to introduce the idea of good vampires to Jacob, and perhaps teach him a few things about prejudice behavior, whatever else we might find useful for an Alpha to know if we're going to have to deal with him."

"He also tried to pass on being the Alpha, because he resented changing so much he didn't want to be in charge as well. I might be able to get him to accept the responsibility sooner, which would be good because even in the books Jake was more accepting than Sam, who ended up filling in as Alpha." Bella finished the explanation and there was some chuckling from the phone.

"You are definitely fitting in with that family Bella." Tanya chuckled. "Finishing each other's sentences already?"

"I consider Bella a member of this family, Tanya." Esme spoke up and Bella stared into her compassionate and loving eyes, touched at the comment, especially during this meeting.

"Yeah, Bella bear is here to stay." Emmett added.

"Then we will definitely need to meet your human coven mate." Tanya added so smoothly it seemed almost planned. "I think we will take you up on the offer to visit this summer."

A loud cracking noise drew Bella's attention away from the phone to see Rosalie holding up a broken arm from her chair, before tossing it to the ground. Bella gave Rose a concerned look and reached out across the table. "Are you okay?" She asked as quietly as she could, as her hand rested on the arm Rose still had sitting on the table.

"I'm fine." Rose told her, but she did take Bella's hand and hold it. Bella gave her a concerned look and decided to rip the band aid off fast. Rose was getting tense waiting for the axe to drop.

"Okay then." Bella took a deep breath and took control of the meeting again. "It'll be nice to meet you all this summer, but I think we should get back to business." She said while looking at the phone. Bella gripped Rose's hand hard, and hoped Rose wouldn't crush hers later without meaning too. She'd have to let go before she brought up the worst of this, but it should be okay for a while.

**Jasper Pov**

Rose's jealousy with Tanya appeared to be making Edward somewhat amused, but it was concerning many of the others around the table. Bella took a moment to collect her thoughts again.

"Okay, so they were wrapping up senior year." Bella started. "One of the conditions the Volturi had for letting Bella go was that she was turned, but Edward was coming up with bad plans to try and avoid that. Bella brought the matter to a family meeting, because she wanted to be turned, and because everyone would be punished if she wasn't turned. She put it up to a vote and only two voted against her." Bella looked over at Rosalie, her concern and affection clear. "You voted no, because you wished someone had voted no for you, but Rose, what you really wished was that someone gave you a choice, and that's different. Bella wanted the same thing, her choice. It was stupid, granted, she didn't know what she was getting and Edward still was keeping that information from her, but at this point her choices were death or vampire, no matter how deluded Edward was about that. He was the other one voting no." Bella shook her head and sighed. "Of course now that they were in Forks, the wolves had already made threats that if Bella was turned it would be war, so at that point in time, any choice was dangerous."

"Victoria was still trying to get to Bella, and now it was becoming apparent that she wasn't a typical vampire. She was able to run through the woods with Wolves on one side of her and vampires on the other and still not get caught. She almost started a war just by dodging so well Emmett got frustrated and followed her across the border. Paul is the hot head of the wolves, which given how bad wolves are with their tempers says a lot. It was close, but as the Cullen's and Wolves worked to not attack each other Victoria got away. She did that a lot." Jasper grimaced, because it sounded like Victoria would be a real threat if he couldn't even catch her.

"Alice was watching for Victoria, watching for Aro's decisions, watching for the newborn that the Cullens thought was in Seattle, because the death toll was making headlines, watching for Bella, watching for the wolves," Bella gave Alice a look. "They were running Alice ragged and Edward never even seemed to care. The thing was though, a few people had figured out the hole in Alice's powers, Victoria because of Laurent, and Aro because he'd read her, or I assume it was Aro, because Jane can't be that clever." Bella sighed. "There was a newborn in Seattle, Victoria's. Victoria put him in charge of making decisions, so that Alice wouldn't see anything."

"Oh shit." Emmett muttered, but a few vampires made similar noises, especially the Denali coven, who Jasper expected felt some guilt for this.

"That newborn went to Bella's house with no intention of hurting her, to see if that worked and while he was there he stole her dirty clothes. That was an odd move, unless you realized that Victoria had made a newborn army in Seattle and she was about to send it after Bella." Jasper froze and his eyes narrowed. The emotions around him became stiffling, the fear, the concern, it took him a moment to get a grasp of it all and try to calm it.

"She had an army Bella?" Jasper asked, just to stop Bella from saying anything new until he got the swirl of emotions around him and within him under control. Alice put a hand over his own and pushed calm, and love at him to help him.

"She did, and she lied to them heavily. She told them that the golden eyes just came with age, but you were powerful vampires that planned to take Seattle from them. They thought you were all human drinkers too. She avoided telling them who she was, and had Riley do most of the work with them so that they wouldn't know anything Edward would find useful. She didn't warn them about the Volturi and they were too obvious by far. The Volturi should have stepped in, but they were strangely absent, or apparently strangely absent. Jane was there with the guards, and they were just watching. She decided, not Aro, to let the army storm Forks in the hops that Victoria would kill some Cullens and the Volturi would claim to be innocent of it all."

"They made me useless in this. I couldn't see any of it, could I?" Alice asked and Jasper sent some of the calm she'd given him early back to her.

"No, you didn't see anything yet. Bella was actually the one to figure out it was all connected and what was happening, she was oddly prone to strange dreams that made me wonder if she wasn't just a hint of a precog herself, but that was never really addressed in the story. I don't get dreams like that, just my typical stuff." Jasper knew Bella's typical dreams were probably nightmares and he wanted to remember to ask if that was getting any better for her now that she wasn't alone with her secrets. Bella felt a mix of concern and compassion as she talked with Alice, "You didn't get a vision until Victoria was forced by Jane to start to do something. Jane got impatient with waiting and when someone is avoiding making decisions there is a lot of waiting. Shortly before graduation you got a vision of the attack and Carlisle called the Denali's to see if they'd help, because you weren't going to be able to win alone."

Jasper watched Bella look at the phone again, and watched how Rosalie squeezed her hand just enough to remind Bella she was there. He could sense how that eased Bella's emotions. "Irina was pissed at the wolves who had killed Laurent, she believed it was an unprovoked attack. She put a condition on coming to help the Cullens with the newborn army, and that was that she be allowed to kill the wolves. When that was denied, the Denali's weren't coming to help."

"We left them to face an army?" Tanya asked, her voice tense and disbelieving. "Our family for that lying son of a bitch?"

"Not everyone believed he was lying." Bella said so diplomatically, but he felt her anger in spite of her words. "The vision of the attack came during a graduation party that Jake and a few other wolves crashed, so they could see Bella again. They'd adopted her a bit while her vampires were gone and she was torn between the two groups when everyone was back. When Jake heard of the coming attack, well, the Wolves decided to help. It was a very tense truce, but Jasper worked to train everyone on how to deal with newborns, and Alice wasn't going to be able to see anything with all those wolves around, she didn't constantly moan about it, the wolves were needed, but it was a danger they wouldn't have had if the wolves weren't around."

"Working with mutts." Edward muttered under his breath and Jasper sighed as he considered what losing the advantage of her gift would do to Alice. He hadn't seen the shapeshifters before, but the stories made him leery of having them around his family at all.

"Bella was going to be kept away from the battle and the town, they'd set the stage and one of the wolves would take her into the woods. Wolves smell so bad no one would smell her under it. She would have been okay, but she couldn't stand the idea of Edward fighting, she begged him to stay with her, stay away from the battle, and it was a colossally stupid and selfish move, but Edward granted it to her." Jasper raised an eyebrow as Bella set the stage for something and he couldn't yet see what went wrong. He was normally very good at this sort of thing.

"His trail, it doesn't sound like he went up with the wolf, was it his scent?" Jasper asked after a moment.

"Yes, Victoria knew he'd be where Bella was. Victoria wasn't even going to fight, she was on her way out after letting her army loose, but she and her main newborn followed Edward's scent right to Bella. There was a very young wolf with them, one that had been told was too young for the battle, and he was being used to keep communication going, because all wolves are telepathic with each other while in wolf form. Seth and Edward had to fight off Victoria and Riley. They managed, just in time to find out another problem was on the way as Alice sent word to hurry up and get back through Seth."

"What now?" Rosalie muttered and the feelings around the table all were a mix of that message. Jasper shook his head just a little, because even during his time with the newborn wars, dangers rarely stacked up one after another like this. It had to be the Volturi, they'd waited out the battle and were checking to see if it worked. Bella's emotions were not pained, tormented, so Jasper assumed the Volturi plan hadn't worked for them.

"The wolves cleared out so the Volturi wouldn't see them, and Jane and the other guards marched into the clearing where the battle happened, pretending they were just late. Edward knew better, and so did the poor newborn that had tried to surrender. Jane had the newborn killed and made a veiled threat in noticing Bella was still human. Alice pointed out that the date was set, and it was set though Edward was doing what he could to delay it." The wave of irritation in Bella showed there was more story there, but apparently Bella was editing out some of the story, because he didn't know what made her mad at Edward now.

"Bella didn't believe in marriage so young, but it became the condition Edward put on turning her with his venom, so after all of this, Alice was let loose on planning a summer wedding. On top of this, with the decision made, finally Bella was getting to hear little hints of what it was to be a vampire." Bella huffed out a bit of air.

"And you are not interested in Edward at all?" Tanya asked, making Emmett and Rosalie a little amused and Edward growled under his breath, too quiet for Bella to hear. Bella felt a bit of disgust and some embarrassment.

"He's really not my type." Based on her emotions, it was very gentle, what she said out loud. Jasper felt a little guilty but he sent her a mix of emotions to make her a little more truthful. "I'd be happier with just about any other golden eyed vampire, there might even be some human drinkers I'd consider before I did him."

Emmett was chuckling so hard he might break his chair and Jasper grinned guiltily when Edward turned his dark gaze to him. "Jasper."

"Just the truth." Jasper chuckled. "You kept holding out hope, now you know. This is not that Bella, and never will be."

"I'm sorry." Bella spoke, her eyes more on Esme than Edward, but then Jasper got a glare for himself from Both Esme and Bella. Bella also felt some embarrassment.

"I'm sorry Darlin', but with all this talk of marriage, did you want Edward at all confused about your position?" He felt her forgiveness before he saw the light nod of it.

"Any other golden eyed?" Emmett said in a teasing voice, and there was some laughter over the phone. Jasper got the sense that Emmett's words ruined the forgiveness he'd just been given.

"So," Bella's voice was firm and cold as she glared at Emmett for a moment, "In learning a bit about the newborn year, Bella made another stupid decision." Bella was ignoring Emmett's teasing and the large vampire chuckled and just sat back. Jasper wondered if Bella had put an order to her preferred vampires, since whether Bella knew it or not everyone had the hint of who the first one on the list would be. Bella still held Rosalie's hand and Rosalie was gently caressing the back of Bella's hand with a thumb to try and calm her. It was working, a little, but Bella was reluctant, and Alice was giving off feelings of expectation and sympathy, so they were at the main problem that Bella hadn't wanted to share.

"Quick like a band aid." Alice spoke softly to Bella when Bella paused, and the table all calmed down as everyone else realized it was about to get worse. Jasper centered himself emotionally and prepared for a roller coaster ride of emotions.

"After the wedding they went on a honeymoon to the island." Bella swallowed hard. "Since the newborns tend to want blood more than anything, Bella wanted to be human the first time she made love."

"That's not possible." Edward muttered, his feelings of fear and shock hitting Jasper.

"It is possible, but without practice." Tanya spoke up. "Well, men are rather selfish sexually. It would be hard for a male vampire to do this well their first time ever."

Rosalie's interest was peaked and Jasper watched the urge to ask questions rush through her with a little amusement. It would be a good idea to learn how to touch the human, before actually trying to do so.

"I don't know what she was thinking. I've been with humans that couldn't stop themselves from biting me during sex." Bella spoke with a bit of a tired sarcastic tone and Jasper noticed that Edward was a little scandalized that the human wasn't a virgin in her past life, if he even believed she'd had a past life yet. "Still, to his credit he managed."

Bella took a shaky breath and gently pulled her hand out of Rosalie's, while giving Emmett a meaningful stare that none of them missed. Emmett took Rosalie's other hand and Rosalie gripped it hard as she tried to prepare herself. Bella had tears in her eyes again and she her voice was tight, as if she were fighting sobs at having to say this. Jasper filled the room with calm, so much that even Rosalie's tense form relaxed a little. "It is possible for a vampire male to get a human female pregnant if they can have sex and leave the woman alive." Names were even a part of the story, but shock filled the room. "The fetus grows incredibly fast though."

"Oh my god." Rosalie's words escaped her and Bella flinched to hear them. Alice gripped Bella's hand.

"Keep going, rip it off fast." Alice told her as Bella stopped talking. A wave of pain was coming from Edward as well, everyone really, but Rosalie and Edward staggered Jaspers control.

"The cleaning lady had heard stories, once they realized Bella was pregnant and she said that it was a fatal condition. There had been other women that had born these half breed babies, but none lived. Edward was determined to get Bella home and get it aborted, but Bella decided she didn't want that. She called Rosalie for help, because she'd need a protector, Edward never listened to her when it was important and she was terrified. They got home and Rosalie and Bella stopped the others from aborting the baby."

"No," Edward made the whisper sound like a gasp from a drowning man.

"Keep going, keep going." Alice spoke desperately to Bella, while holding her tight in her arms. Emmett had Rosalie in a similar hold and Esme was gripping Edward's hand hard.

"Bella couldn't eat, until they realized she needed to drink blood. The baby tore her body up with typical things, a baby kick would break a rib. The baby wasn't going to be born normally and the only way to survive was to turn Bella as soon as the baby was out." Bella felt nausea and Jasper hated to take his calm away from others, but they couldn't stop this story here, he pushed more at Bella so she could hold it together. She couldn't even look toward Rosalie at the moment, but the pain radiated out of Bella told him why this hurt so much for her. "Carlisle wasn't at the house when the water broke, and Rosalie found she couldn't deliver the baby herself with that much blood. Edward did it, and then he gave Bella a shot filled with his venom right into the heart, but it looked like she'd died for a little while. Rosalie took care of the baby while Edward fought to save Bella's life. It was a little girl."

"Jake imprinted on the little girl and was able to split off from the pack, with two others that didn't want to be in Sam's pack and they helped to protect the baby from the pack that wanted to kill her, while Bella was changing. Carlisle gave Bella morphine thinking it would help, don't ever do that, it makes it worse. Screaming is a release at least and she was denied that."

Jasper knew Carlisle had wanted to try that experiment in the hopes that it would ease the pain they all went through, but apparently that wasn't the answer. It did help to ease Carlisle out of his shock and sympathy and back easier emotions for Jasper to deal with. Still, hard as he struggled to function under the onslaught he didn't begrudge Bella the support Alice was giving her, instead of him.

"Bella had a good grasp of her blood thirst right out of the gate, so they were able to let her see her baby after she went hunting." Bella was shaking a lot and had been since she started talking about the baby. Rosalie's expression was lost and pained and shocked, but there was a strong determination underneath it and Rose pulled away from Emmett and reached out for Bella.

"Give her to me." Rose spoke firmly, even with pain in her eyes, as she looked at Alice and held her arms out.

"I didn't want to hurt you." Bella's voice cracked and Rosalie held her tight to her body and let Bella cry onto her shirt.

"It's okay, it's okay." Rosalie told her gently, her own voice cracking.

"I think we need another break." Tanya spoke up softly, saying what Jasper was hoping someone, anyone, would say because he needed out of the house desperately.

"No one can leave." Bella managed to destroy Jasper's hope.

"Bella, honey, Jasper needs to get away from these emotions." Alice spoke softly. "If no one can be alone, no one will run. Esme will watch Edward. I'll promise you Bella, I'll promise you that we'll start up again with everyone." As soon as Bella nodded Jasper got up and moved for the door, Carlisle following him after a pause where Jasper had thought it would be Alice, but Alice sat at the table near Bella, who apparently would need her more right now.


	48. Chapter 48

**Esme pov**

Edward looked so lost and Esme sat on the boulder in the backyard just watching him. They'd left the house, but promised not to leave the yard. They could still hear the other four who had stayed at the table.

It was harder than she'd expected, Esme thought. Half of the family was disabled by grief and shock and she was a part of that half. What her son had lost was beyond measure, and what he'd done was beyond stupid. Esme struggled to push those thoughts out of her mind, for his sake, as he sat there staring out into the woods blankly.

"You don't think she's the same Bella." Edward asked quietly after a long silence.

"No, she's not. This is Bella Maria Swan, and she's been reincarnated into that younger body." Esme told him as gently as she could. She loved their Bella, she felt torn though, because while she wanted their Bella to be a part of the family, part of her wished that other Bella existed too, just for Edward's sake. Even though Edward and that Bella in the story sounded like a horrible mess of a relationship, it was the first time Edward had shown any interest in any one.

"She basically said she'd rather be with anyone else but me, and everyone else is married. She'd rather be a bit on the side than be with me." Edward spoke slowly. "Or a stranger, she'd pick a stranger over me, even one that kills humans."

"This isn't the Bella in the stories Edward, you've never really even talked to this Bella before." Esme didn't add that he'd never met the other one. "She didn't mean to say that to you Edward." Esme told him, but she knew, they both knew, that it was how she really felt. The story painted a bad Edward, and Esme got the sense that after Alice told Bella to not concentrate on Edward's part of it so much more was left out. "You do need to know that women of this time are different than what you grew up with. Even we have changed, but you, you still think the man is supposed to do all the thinking and the woman is to be cared for like a child. That irritated even the women a hundred years ago." Was it too soon to tell him that he needed to work on himself, if he hadn't found a mate yet it would be a woman of this time or later and his old fashioned attitude would drive love away from him.

"I know I'm horrible. I endangered everyone in that story, and it's more than a story isn't it. It was the future as it would have been." Edward sighed. "It hardly seems fair that in the story that Rosalie was horrible to her and yet Bella cried for her and didn't even think twice about my pain."

"Oh Edward." Esme felt lost, unsure how to reassure him.

"I don't want to stay, but I made a promise and I'm going to show her I can keep my word. She apparently has no confidence in my ability to do so. So I'll stay and I'll listen to however else I managed to hurt my family, whatever other huge blunders I made with the best of intentions and how it likely got Irina killed. I can't very well go to Alaska now, anyway, not after this."

…..

** Tanya Pov**

Tanya took a deep breath and then looked around the living room at the others. "Eleazer, I believe this story, but have you ever heard of anything like this child they are talking about?"

"No, somehow I've never even heard legends, but based on how the human maid acted there are legends somewhere." He told her and she nodded distractedly. She was well aware that two of the Cullen women would be disappointed today, and Tanya was just glad she had no maternal instincts of her own that would be scarred to know that the men of their kind could and they couldn't.

"She really doesn't care for Edward much, does she?" Kate asked and a bit of humor was in her voice. Tanya smiled just a little as she looked up at her sister. The time period he came from was incredibly dull and restrictive about sex. Tanya had taken to acting infatuated with him just to make him uncomfortable when he was around. She liked the rest of Carlisle's family, and for the most part Edward was alright, but the condemnation or pity in Edward's eyes whenever a thought or word came out about their monthly need to sate other desires grew old fast.

"I don't think he'll be marrying that Bella anytime soon." Tanya spoke up, before looking over at Irina. "Are you okay?"

"I'm pretty sure I'm in the next part of this story." Irina spoke softly. "Based on what's happening now, I'm afraid of what I may have done before I died."

"Bella called us to make sure you were warned, so whatever you did wasn't unforgivable." Tanya told her sister. The thought that Irina could have died was horrifying. They'd been together so long that Tanya could not even imagine life without her sister. It was unusual for any vampires not mated to stay together for any huge length of time, but Tanya and her sisters may hold the record for the longest time a coven stayed together, other than the Volturi, and may have held that record five hundred years ago.

"Do you think she's cute?" Kate asked while moving to lay on the couch. Poor Irina now had feet in her lap. "Bella?"

"How are we supposed to tell that from a voice?" Tanya shook her head in some amusement at Kate turning this break into a chance to gossip.

"Well, I was just wondering what type of female Edward goes for. It's the same body as the Bella he married, aren't you curious?" Kate smirked as she pulled her arms around behind her to rest her head on. "I mean, I can bet she's not blonde. He doesn't look at any of us or Rosalie."

"I know, I'm surprised she's a female actually, I was sure he was a repressed homosexual." Tanya spoke with a wicked grin.

"No, no, that lad isn't gay, just regularly repressed." Eleazer added.

"Eleazer." Carmen scolded him with just one word, but the rest of them were grinning.

"It must be hard for him, living with Rosalie." Tanya grinned as she said it. Rosalie had the sex drive of a succubus, without the need of the energy. It was always Tanya's secret thought that if Rosalie had been turned by Tanya or one of her sisters, she would have been a succubus. Given how Rosalie was abused though, perhaps it was better not to be a full succubus, those first few years would have been too hard for her. She might have allowed herself to starve, rather than lay with anyone.

"I'm concerned about the Volturi." Eleazer spoke up and the teasing air faded. "Now that Bella pointed it out, it makes horrible sense how the Volturi have so many gifted members. I wanted to believe the best of them, so did Carlisle I assume. Based on what Bella has said I'm amazed I was allowed to leave."

Tanya gritted her teeth rather than speak up. Her family had had poor dealings with the Volturi in the past, but a crime had been committed and they'd not blamed the royal family for enacting punishment. They'd been horrified by the immortal child as well, but the loss of Sasha was a hard loss to take. Now they find that if they'd had powers deemed useful they might have been taken away, that they could have taken Kate away, that was hard to stomach. "We will have to do all we can to avoid them. Bella gave us knowledge I'm sure Aro would not like us having."

"Oh god, I think that's what I did." Irina gasped and Tanya turned her eyes to her sister in concern.

"What?" Tanya asked.

"I was bitter in that story, angry." Irina spoke with some pain and Kate was up from her laying position and sitting beside her in a blink. "If I'm right, then Bella's definition of forgivable is much kinder than my own."

Tanya was confused, but before she could ask the phone rang. "I guess it's time." Tanya muttered and pushed the button for the speaker. Kate was holding Irina's hand for support, while Tanya took the lead on the phone. "Hello again."

….

** Emmett pov**

Emmett felt helpless and he hated to feel that, especially when it was about Rose, or now Bella. They were hurting, both hurting and nothing could be done about it. He had learned how to be silently supportive in his early years with this family. Rose had been so damaged, and so distraught over what she'd lost, and he'd been her rock.

Rose concerned him the most at this time, because this was so hard for her and also if she was okay, Bella would be okay. This was hard for Rose, so hard he was amazed that she'd been able to pull away and comfort Bella. Rose now held Bella's hand, and she sat up straight, but in the corners of her eyes, in the tilt of her lip, Emmett knew it was taking everything Rose had to be able to do that. She was going to collapse at some point tonight, and she was just determined that Bella wouldn't see it.

Emmett remembered hard nights when he'd done that for Rose, been stronger than he really was. There were so many nights where he tried to be as strong as he could for her, nights where it felt like his heart was being ripped apart by her pain, and he remembered getting through the episode, the crying, the screaming, and then just managing to get far enough away so he could scream himself for her pain and the way it hurt him to be so helpless to do more than listen.

Emmett took a breath and focused on Alice, who had set the phone down. His eyes asking a question he hoped she caught. "We're almost done, and then we can go lick our wounds." Alice answered too quiet for Bella to hear.

"Hey Tanya." Bella answered the greeting that had been given them. "Is everyone there?"

"Oh we weren't going to leave now." Tanya spoke and it was easy to hear the resignation in her voice.

"Alright then." Bella took a deep breath and was staring at those notes again. Emmett had taken a peak at those notes, but they made little sense, and Rose hadn't let him look long during that break.

"The baby kept growing fast, and she was unnaturally attached to Jake's presence so even though Bella wasn't really comfortable with the imprint she couldn't really deny them time together." Bella started and there was an extra tension in her voice that vampire ears could hear easily. The baby had a weird form of telepathy to communicate and was strangely smart and perceptive. Her mind was growing faster than her body and her body was growing so fast Bella was afraid her baby would die of old age in a year."

Rose gritted her teeth and Bella gripped Rose's hand harder, hard enough for Emmett to see white knuckles. "The baby needed to hunt, she could eat human food, but she preferred blood. Bella, Jake and the baby went out on a hunting trip." Bella's eyes moved to the phone and talked right to it. "Irina was visiting and saw them from a distance, too much of a distance to hear the beating heart. She just saw a wolf, and she hated those, and a small vampire, with Bella. Assumptions were made and she was gone before Bella could even think to follow her. Bella should have chased her down."

Irina muttered in Russian and Emmett grimaced. Shit was so right.

"I know there were a lot of reasons she came to the conclusion she did and anger and fear would have pushed her to do what she did." Bella stammered a little.

"You don't need to sugar coat it. I betrayed my family." Irina spoke up, her accent, which had been gone for years was a little thicker at the moment.

Bella paused, and they could all hear her teeth grind for a moment. "Irina called the Volturi." She just put it out there fast, perhaps that band aid that Alice kept talking about. "Alice saw the Volturi were going to come in force and destroy the Cullens. Alice also had some other ideas, but with Aro coming she couldn't tell anyone what she was doing. The Cullens were shocked when Alice and Jasper ran, leaving them behind." Bella's eyes moved to Alice. "They weren't running away, they were trying a last ditch effort to save everyone, but no one knew that for a while."

"Vampires started arriving at the house. Alice and Jasper were sending them. Soon Carlisle was calling more. They told them they weren't expected to fight, but to witness what the Volturi were doing. The Volturi's habit of stealing the gifted was figured out, and the fake trials. Alice was setting them up to be unable to hide what they did here, but it was just part of her plan. She was desperately looking for another half breed child, and it was hard, because she couldn't have visions of those."

"While there were those that were at the house just to witness, those that expected they'd have to fight were training. Bella was training her gift to learn how to protect others with it. The Volturi's main guards relied on mind powers and Bella was needed to protect everyone from those. The Denali's, other than Irina, were training as well. They formally announced that they were part of the Cullen coven when it came time, with Irina standing by the Volturi, confused and scared."

"It wasn't looking good, and then Alice showed up with a young man, another half breed. His father was a bit of an evil scientist and he was going around impregnating women, and leaving them to die giving birth, to see what half breeds were capable of. It was a messed up story, but they were able to show that half breeds were not a huge threat to the secrets and laws. Aro was pissed, so was Caius, but with witnesses they could just attack for no reason."

Bella paused, tears in her eyes and trailing down her face. "I'm so sorry." She whispered, and her voice cracked. She took a shaky breath and Emmett watched her helplessly. "The Volturi, once they realized that it wasn't an immortal child still wanted to fight. They killed Irina in punishment for the false report, they were trying to get her sisters to attack first. They had to be held back when it happened."

"Thank you for telling me." Irina spoke stiffly, and Emmett thought he could hear a sob over the phone from someone. "I had expected it might be something like this."

"I'm sorry." Bella spoke softly.

"You are merely the bearer of bad news Bella, and you've saved me from that." Irina sounded like she was moving closer to the phone.

Tanya spoke up, her voice tight and tense. "We appreciate being witness to this story, but is it over now?"

"Yes." Bella whispered and Emmett felt relief that it was done.

"We look forward to meeting you, but I find we really must be going. Thank you Bella, really, thank you." The phone cut off and Alice reached out to turn it off on their end. They all sat in silence for a moment.

"That was a little rougher than I thought it would be." Emmett admitted after too much silence.

"That's why I didn't want to do this." Bella admitted in a whisper.

"You've saved us from a half a dozen dangers just with this story alone Bella." Jasper spoke up. "It was necessary, at least we can say it was necessary to know this."

"You did the right thing Bella." Rosalie whispered, and Emmett could see her mask starting to crack. "I'll talk to you later, but I really need to hunt, very badly." Emmett watched Bella look into Rose's golden eyes and just nod. His Bella bear knew enough to know Rose didn't need to hunt, and so did he.

"I could use a bite myself." He lied openly and no one debated it as he followed Rose out of the house.

…


	49. Chapter 49

Bella Pov

Bella was adult enough to know that the vampires just needed time to absorb what they'd learned, so she didn't feel abandoned when Alice shuffled her out the door and drove her home. Jasper came with them and Bella could see him feeling better the further they got from the house, so she knew she was getting nothing but brave faces while she said her goodbyes. No, she spent Saturday night alone and she didn't mind. She felt like she'd run a marathon and she was exhausted, so she just watched some movies mindlessly and thanked whatever fortune she had that Charlie was out with Billy that day.

Sunday came and everything was hard to focus on. She worked from 10 to 2, and she did her best to be on time and to stay focused, because she needed hours and the manager was still training her, so she needed to seem like she cared, but it was hard to care that day. Her mind was constantly wondering how her vampires were, if they were okay. She got home just a little after 2:30 and waved to Charlie as he was watching some sports game before retreating to her room. She spent the rest of day trying to pull her attention back to her projects, papers, and notes to get ready for the last few days of school. Good grades were important for scholarships, and she'd forced herself to go through school through all sorts of pain before so she powered through now.

Bella didn't even realize how worried she'd been until Charlie pulled up to the school to drop her off and Alice was waiting where she normally waited. Bella let out a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding for days, and her eyes stung a little with tears she wasn't going to let fall. They were still here. "Hey Alice." Bella spoke softly as she walked up to her, moving slower than normal. Alice pulled her into a hug and just held her for a moment.

"I told you I'd never leave you." Alice whispered into her ear and Bella hugged her back. She ignored the childish whoops and whistles even she could hear from some of the boys in the parking lot.

"Rosalie wasn't feeling well today, but she wanted me to tell you," Alice spoke while moving back and staring into Bella's eyes, "that she will be, and she wants your notes from biology for the test tomorrow." Humans were getting a little closer to them. Bella nodded, understanding that the real message was that it would be okay, just not yet. "Emmett stayed home with her."

They started to make their way toward their first class together. "Did Edward run?" Bella asked, fully expecting a yes to that.

"No, he finds he doesn't want to face the Denali's yet. He tends to mope around in his room or in his meadow." Alice told her and Bella could see the concern, which made her feel a little worse for not caring more about his pain. "He's made no real decisions, so I'm not sure what his plans might be. He's here today, but I really thought he might skip too."

"Can they afford to miss this week?" Bella asked quietly, thinking of all the work that was due. Maybe she should have found a way to hold out another week so that Emmett and Rosalie wouldn't mess up their grades on top of it all.

"We all hold straight A's Bella." Alice smiled. "We could afford to skip this week and still pass just fine."

"Smug little shit." Bella teased a little. She was getting great grades as well, but did it really count when you were repeating high school? She didn't brag about her grades.

"So after you get back from Renee's wedding, I think we could start planning our summer projects. Oh, and I'll drive you to school every day I can this summer." Alice told her.

"That's good. I'm hoping to have enough for a car before Fall." Bella sighed, it would be tough, but she needed to get some way to get around.

"You better let Rose help you with that." Alice spoke quieter as the teacher stepped into the room. "She'll want to be a part of that, and she'll make sure you get something decent."

"Will she really want to?" Bella found herself asking quietly, her voice too wounded for her taste.

"Oh, honey, Rose loves you. This didn't change anything." Alice reassured her and the teacher started talking, so they had to stop, but Bella felt a little better anyhow.

…..

**Jasper Pov**

"Are you sure about this?" Jasper asked as he stood outside of the ice cream parlor.

"Yes, I need to talk to her and Rosalie won't let me within a hundred feet of her." Edward sighed. "I'm not going to hurt her." Edward was clearly frustrated with the guards, but none of them were ready to risk him alone with Bella just yet. He'd never had a conversation with her, and they were starting slow if they were going to do this at all.

"She won't have a customer for thirty minutes, and her manager left her alone." Alice sighed. "'We go in with you, that isn't up for discussion, but you can sit with her on your own as long as I don't see any problems."

"I guess that will have to do." Edward muttered. "I just need to know, she left out so much."

"Okay." Alice sighed and they made their way inside. Alice went in first and Jasper felt the moment Bella saw her, the happiness that filled her at the unexpected visit, but when Bella's eyes moved passed Jasper caution and concern started to leak out of their Bella.

"Edward wanted to talk to you." Alice explained and Bella now was reluctant as well. "Please Bella, just let him ask some questions."

"I can't get caught not working." Bella glanced at the door as if someone would come in as soon as she said that.

"You have a half hour of nothing but wiping the same old counters off repeatedly. You have time." Alice told her and Bella sighed, before motioning to one of the small tables.

Edward moved slowly, which was good. Jasper didn't want Bella getting tense. He sat down and Jasper took a seat at the other end of the small place, which was really just three tables over. Alice gave Bella a reassuring smile before sitting with him.

"First, I wanted to thank you for telling us the story. I know it was hard for you to share, and I know it was hard for me to hear." Edward started. "I find you may have glossed over some things I'd like to know."

"We only have a half hour. Just give me your questions and I'll try and answer them." Bella glanced at the door again, as if expecting to get caught sitting.

"You never said what my daughter's name was."

"That's," Jasper felt the disbelief and concern in Bella. "I did that on purpose, since she'll never be."

"I want to know."

"That Bella combined some names and came up with Renesmee." Jasper felt some disgust at that name, and it was an odd one. "Some people called her Nessie."

"Renesmee." Edward said the words out loud and there was a pain in his voice that had Bella concerned as well. "It's an odd name, but it could grow on me."

"I hate it myself, that Bella felt the need to name her child after her mother." Bella shook her head. "It's no secret how I feel about her mother."

"No, it isn't." Edward paused. "After our break, you stopped talking about the relationship as much. Did I get better?"

"No, you got worse." Bella admitted and Jasper watched Edward carefully as disappointment hit him. "You took controlling to a level that scared me in that story. You didn't trust her opinion about the wolves and you had her practically under arrest. You sabotaged her truck if she tried to visit her friend. You made Alice her keeper if you had to hunt. You took so much of her freedom away that she learned how to run away from you all so she could see Jake. I think part of her was starting to hate you, before you finally figured it out."

"But she still agreed to marry me."

"She didn't agree right away. That marriage before sex rule is kinda stupid for this generation, or mine." Bella smiled just a little. "Sex is important, and if two people can't connect in that way the relationship will die off. I'd never marry anyone I hadn't slept with."

"You plan to marry someday? Does that mean you are going to find a man?"

Jasper felt the irritation from Bella, and the strange and concerning hope from Edward. "I define marriage as a commitment to someone, of any gender, to be there, to stick around and support and love each other. I don't define it by the certificate they give you or deny you." She glanced over at Alice and there was some mischievousness. "Besides, Alice already promised to marry me when it was legal here. It'll be legal in a few more years."

"When did you propose darlin', didn't think to tell me?" Jasper asked Alice with a smile.

"What about being faithful, do you consider that part of marriage?" Edward asked with a hint of malevolence and Jasper shared a dark look with Alice, seeing where this was going.

"Wow, you want to argue don't you? I'm not stupid enough to take you on; you haven't learned that you have one mouth and two ears yet." Bella shook her head. "Whatever relationship Alice and Jasper have is none of my business. My relationship with them is just fine. Nothing else is my business."

"She thinks we're swingers now, thanks a lot Edward. She might think that proposal was serious now." Jasper teased him. Edward seemed flustered at that.

"No, don't try and fix it. I'll clean up your mess; you'll just make it worse." Alice spoke up firmly.

"In the story, you were upset that the baby seemed to be killing Bella." Bella spoke and Jasper glanced at Alice, because there was a hint of anger even with her gentle tone. "You thought she just wanted to have a baby, and that you could abort the one hurting her and offer her another. You offered Jacob the chance to father your children if he could just talk Bella into the abortion." Shock hit all of them. "In practice, in a real relationship, you found a loophole for faithfulness. I honestly don't think your offer was because you didn't love her. Cut and dry rules don't always work well in reality. Remember that Edward." Bella stood up. "I really need to work on inventory."

"I kind of wish we'd asked for the full story." Jasper spoke softly, though Saturday was hard enough as it was and longer would have been too hard to deal with, knowing little facts like that were all sorts of interesting.

"You two go, I need to do a little damage control." Alice gave a glare to Edward, as he walked passed them.

They stood to the side of the building to wait. It was easy enough to hear the two women talking. "Thanks for being willing to talk with him." Alice sighed heavily. "Sorry he was a bit of an ass."

"You were, if you were trying to show her you weren't the ass in the story, you failed." Jasper told Edward, before they made their way to his Volvo. Edward knew he was right, his irritation and silence said it all.

….

** Bella Pov**

Bella woke up with her heart pounding and took a gasping breath as her eyes opened. The nightmare was a little different, but she was having them again.

"Shh, it's okay." A feminine voice whispered and Bella felt fingers caress her hair. It started her heart faster for a moment, before her mind caught up to recognizing the voice.

"Rose?" Bella was still a little disoriented, but she was pretty sure she was in her bedroom. It was dark, so she could only see the shadow of the vampire in her room, no details.

"You are still having nightmares." Rosalie spoke softly and Bella felt the bed shift as the blonde vampire sat down on it next to her.

"Just lately." Bella spoke softly, "But how are you?" She hadn't seen Rose in days, she hadn't been going to school.

"I'm concerned, because you are having nightmares again." Rose moved and the light from the neighbors porch light helped to make it so Bella could actually see her. She did look concerned.

"I'm prone to them, have been for years." Bella admitted and stared up at Rose. "Were you just sitting in my room watching me?" She kept herself from asking how Rose got in here, but she'd have to do something about the windows before she woke up to Edward in her room. She just had no idea how to sell that idea to Charlie, that they needed security on the second floor.

"I'm sorry, I know that bothers you." Rose's fingers started to caress her hair. "I just needed to see you, and Alice said you wouldn't sleep well tonight anyhow." It didn't really bother her too much at the moment. Bella wished she could see better, to see how Rose was really doing. "I know you have your flight in the morning and I didn't want you to leave for days and not see you."

Bella could hear Rosalie take a shaky breath. "I knew whatever you were going to tell us would hurt, you made it clear, you warned me, but I had no idea how much it would hurt." Bella reached out and felt around on the bed until she found the hand Rosalie was leaning on and rested hers above it.

"Do you want to lay down?" Bella asked, before blushing a little as she realized she was inviting Rosalie into her bed. It just seemed like Rose needed to be here, and Bella didn't want her rushing off now that she finally had her back.

"I'm not going to be able to sleep." Rosalie sounded like she might be giving Bella a weak smile.

"Neither am I." Bella gave her own weak smile back, sure that Rose would see it, before scooting over toward the wall to make room for Rose. Bella rolled onto her side so she could try and watch the blonde vampire that took the space opened for her.

"The one thing I regretted the most about being a vampire was that we couldn't have children." Rosalie started to talk. "To find out that Edward could, but that it was at such a high price. I don't think I could have been the one to help her, if it had been you, I couldn't watch you suffer like that. Her having your name, and hearing how my dream ripped apart her body, it was hard." Fingers were caressing her hair again. Rose's voice was soft and pained. "I think that if I did sleep I would have been having nightmares too, because even though I would never want to see someone suffer like that, if I could do it myself I would."

Bella had no words, so she just reached out and pulled Rosalie closer to her. Bella had to roll onto her back to hold her, but she did it. The darkness helped her have more courage than she normally would.

"You're heartbeat is so strong." Rosalie spoke softly, her head resting on Bella's chest.

"Is it okay?" Bella asked, a little concerned that she'd just made things harder for Rose.

"I'm fine here." The blonde vampire told her and then moved an arm to hold Bella to her, it was like they were cuddling. Rose's scent filled the air around her and Bella struggled not to inhale deeply, because that would be so obvious with Rosalie laying on her like this.

"Where is Emmett?" Bella asked after a moment.

"He's been with me for days. I told him I needed to visit you, he's at home."

"I've been worried about you."

"I'm sorry, I didn't want you to see me like that." Rosalie told her. "I'm feeling much better now. Do you think you could try and sleep again? You have a long day tomorrow."

Bella didn't think she could, but Rosalie started talking softly. It took a moment to realize she was being told a story, an adapted bedtime story based on one of Rose's favorites in a soft voice. Rose talked about Snow White and Princess Charming, and Bella chuckled at the irony. Kristen Stewart played Snow White too. Bella tried to stay awake for the story, but Rose kept her voice so soft and quiet and Bella found herself actually falling asleep in her arms, being told a bedtime story, of all things.

The oddest thing was that she had no nightmare when she fell back to sleep.

…

_Author's Note: Okay, in a book the tension is supposed to grow and grow until it reaches a climax (kind of like sex). You then get the cuddle (the resolution). Because of this and my overall plan for MY Bella, I have to start another story, a sequel, rather than just continue here. I need to make it clear it is Tossing Stones 2, so I'm struggling with a title and could use a little feedback. The focus of the new story is different; it'll be more on romance, as this story was about the secrets._

**Help me select a title for the Next story: Tossing Stones 2 **

**Bella Maria: Vampire Magnet (inspired by Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter)**

**Bella Maria and the Awakening of Opportunity (Inspired by endless Harry Potter books)**

**The Twilight of Morning (Did you know there are 2 twilights a day? Morning and Night? I'd never even thought of it before.)**

**Description: Bella has shared her secrets and some of the future that they will not have to live. Now she's moving into Junior year and trying to make plans for a future she would want, with increasingly growing possibilities. Femslash or bisexuality likely (Yes, I haven't ruled bisexuality out yet. Everyone else has labeled Bella's sexuality, but she's carefully not labeling herself.)**

Authors note: I have finished a novel length fanfiction in three months. You heard me, that's a record for me. I'd like to say I can keep this up, but honestly I'm shocked I managed it this time.


	50. TS announcement - sequel started

Well, there is a sequel up now, Tossing Stones 2: In the Sea

I went with more clichés for the title, this one was about tossing stones in a glass house and the next is the more fish in the sea. I'm moving from a critique of the original twilight fiction to a romance, where Bella has more options than she could have imagined and Rosalie struggles with the fact that the girl she is interested in is the center of too much attention. This new fic is rated M because Bella's no dating rule is going to be broken for junior year.

I won't be able to post daily, even though I know people are already asking for that, but I will try and post as often as possible.


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